Scarab Key
by Blue-Starlight92
Summary: Here it is the, well, not so long, but awaited or at least, juding by the PM's I've gotten sequel to Scarab Locket.
1. Familiarity

**A/N: Okay, the, well, not so long, but awaited sequel to "Scarab Locket" is here! Chapter one begins, if you can't tell, where we first see the O'Connell's in the movie. Oh, and I know that this chapter is really following the movie scene just a little too much, but it's because there was so much dialogue that I couldn't really help but follow it and have Sarah talk in between it. And I think I accidentally had her steal one of Rick's lines. Sorry. **

**Anyway. Happy reading. The next chapter should come pretty quickly, but I'll have to see where I am on the others. I had started this before I finished Scarab Locket, so that's why this chapter got put up so fast. **

**And without further ado...**

Chapter 1

Familiarity

The one thought going through my mind was "This is a really odd way to bond with your parents." Similar thoughts earlier in the day had been "Most nineteen year old girls don't do this." or "This is not normal." But since when had my life ever been normal?

Evelyn's voice cut through my thoughts. "Could you hand me that brush, dear?"

"Sure mum." I said, and handed her said brush. Yep, most nineteen-year-old girls would not be on an archeological dig with their mother, father, and little brother. They would be at home, doing something with their friends, maybe preparing for college, but something to do with friends. My problem was that I, still, had very few of those. Nine years, and I was still an oddity to these English people, except for my family.

"Mum, should I clear the cobwebs off the edges of the door?" I asked, thinking that it would make it easier for Rick, who would inevitably break the door down, rather than chiseling through it, as Evelyn would prefer.

"Sure, Sarah, it'll make it easier for Rick to chisel." Evelyn said echoing my thoughts, though what she figured he'd do was slightly different than mine, as she began taking off the layers of cobwebs and dust on a picture in the door. I took a brush to the edges of it, and, after removing a ton of dust, from a wide area on the sides, I could see where the edges of the door should be, and dusted only that section.

"Do you hear something?" I paused listening. Evelyn paused too.

"It sounds like Alex and Rick talking." Evelyn said after a few seconds, and we both went back to brushing away dust.

"I don't know why Dad thinks Alex is going to stay in the temple the entire time." I sighed and shook my head. "Every time he finds something, he's going to come running through here to find us."

"I know." Evelyn smiled. "But it's much needed wishful thinking on our part."

After a few minutes of almost dead silence, save for the sounds of brushes moving across the walls, I could hear something else.

"Do you hear that?" Evelyn looked at me, and I nodded, both of us turning behind us, looking down, at an orange, black and white banded snake slithered toward us.

"Go away." Evelyn said calmly, catching the snake with the toe of her boot and kicking it, sending it flying, just as Rick came into the room.

"Whoa!" Rick dodged out of the way as the snake flew by his face. "Those things are poisonous, you know." But then he grinned.

"Only if they bite you." Evelyn replied, smiling. As we went back to dusting off the door, Evelyn started talking.

"Now what was all that about?" She asked.

"Oh, Alex wanted to show me something. Now where where we?" Rick asked. Evelyn dug into the toolbox and held up two miniscule tools.

"Hammer and chisel. Sarah's dusted off most of the edges of the door for you."

Rick took the tools, looked at them, and then gave Evelyn a look like 'you have to be kidding me'. I couldn't blame him, even I would have just knocked it down, but I wasn't too keen on pointing that out.

"Oh alright! We'll do it your way." She gave in, putting the tools back in the box and handing Rick a large pipe.

"Thank you." Rick said. "Watch out Sarah."

I moved out of the way, and he swung, knocking the door down into, what we found upon going in, a circular room filled with mummies, and skulls and bugs all over the floor. I tried not to cringe. I hated scorpions, and spiders. Little spiders were okay, like the ones that you find in your bathroom, or in a barn hayloft, or something like that, but the big hairy ones, like these, freaked me out.

"I feel like I've been here before." Evelyn said, as she tiptoed across the floor to avoid stepping on the bugs. I followed her example, but ended up crushing a few, I still had my dad's lack of nimbleness. "I know I've been here before." She said as she reached the other side of the room.

"No one's been here before." Rick said, puzzled. "Not in at least three thousand years. Except for these guys." He gestured to the mummies.

"Funny, I had that same feeling when we entered the city." I said, recalling the strange feeling I had, the feeling of recognition, a day ago. "And in the temple, but not here."

"But no ones been here." Rick didn't quite understand what we were getting at. "Maybe you had a dream about somewhere that looked like here, both of you. Didn't you both say that you'd been having dreams?"

"Yes, but how do I seem to know exactly where I'm going?" Evelyn asked as she pulled down a lever, and a door, made out of the wall, opened. Rick went in first, and Evelyn and I followed. We had to stoop ever so slightly going into a tunnel, but going through it, and coming out of it, we could stand again. Looking around, I heard Evelyn gasp, and she waved the torch twice. I watched, puzzled, as she looked around, like she could see something we couldn't. She stared at the door intently, like she was memorizing or reading something.

"Hey Sarah, look at these." Rick said, pointing to some hieroglyphs on the door. We walked forward, Rick took the bar and attempted to wedge open the door.

"Does it say anything about opening this thing?" He asked.

I looked at the door, reading.

"No. Its just history, what little I can read is names of Pharaohs or things like that." I said, after I scanned through it.

"You know, if you move that thing fast enough you can almost write your name?" I looked at Rick, wondering what in the world he was talking about, then realized he was talking to Evelyn.

"I just had a vision." She said suddenly. "It was like my dream, but it was real. Like I was actually here in Ancient times."

"Well, if you actually _where _here, could you show me how to open this thing?" Rick asked. "Sarah says there's nothing on the door about it."

"Okay." Evelyn walked to the door and pulled out a sort of knob-like thing, and turned it, in some sort of pattern that I couldn't figure out, and I guessed that was what she'd been looking at earlier. Pushing it back in, we all gasped, Evelyn and I stumbled backwards out of the way, as the door opened. Pushing it open a little more so we could go through, Evelyn gasped and walked to the end of the room. She pulled some spider webs off a large gold disk. I looked around the room, trying to get a clearer picture of the hieroglyphs on the walls. Never mind the two soldier mummies guarding whatever what was in the chest that sat beneath the gold disk on a table, we had seen plenty of those before.

"That's the emblem of the Scorpion King!" She said excitedly. "But he's supposed to be pure myth! No trace of him has ever been found before…."

"Maybe they didn't want anyone to find him." Rick said, looking at it.

"Let's open this." Evelyn said, examining a chest.

"I don't know, I don't have a real good feeling about this one." Rick said.

"It's only a chest." Evelyn smiled. "No harm in opening a chest."

"Yeah, like no harm ever came from opening a book, remember how that one went?" Rick said. I turned away, suddenly becoming very interested in a pillar. I could think about my dad and uncles by now, but I still didn't like to talk about the particular adventure where I had met my adopted parents. It was like how dad had never liked to talk about sicknesses, and he had avoided hospitals like the plague after my mom died.

"Oh come on, we can't stop now." Evelyn smiled as she turned a key that Rick had found in the lock. The hieroglyphs on the wall were hard to make out. They were fading slightly, and I couldn't read them, as we only had two torches, and that wasn't nearly enough light.

"The Bracelet of Anubis." I heard Evelyn gasp. I turned and walked back to them, now eager to see the item Evelyn held in her hands.

Suddenly we heard, and felt, a deep rumbling from somewhere on the other side of the wall, Evelyn gasped and threw the bracelet back into the chest.

"Well it's a bit late for that, isn't it?" Rick said.

"Put it in your rucksack!" Evelyn said, handing the chest to him.

"Let's just leave it here!" Rick replied, handing it back to her.

"I think it's a bit late for that!" Evelyn said.

"What's the chest say?" I asked, thinking that would help.

"He who disturbs this bracelet, shall drink from the Nile." Evelyn read slowly, having to translate. "Oh that's not too bad." She said, not thinking of several ways that one could interpret that message. I didn't think that the chest was talking about mummies forcing us to drink from the river.

"Mom, I don't know what you're thinking, but judging from the relieved look on your face, trust me, I think that they've thought of worse." I voiced my thought.

We rushed out of the room, and out of the antechamber, and tomb. As we reached the hallway, we heard the loud boom of a wall falling in, and the sight of water rushing in like the floodgates of Heaven had just been opened quickly greeted us.

"Run!" Rick yelled, grabbing Evelyn, who grabbed me, and we took off out of the room, back through the tunnel, and through the tomb that we had uncovered. It was dry in the passageway, but I could hear water rumbling behind us as we flew down the opposite direction. We turned a corner, and I thought there was a sloping path up here, but I was wrong, and we hit a dead end.

"Oh, we're dead." I groaned.

Evelyn and Rick grabbed me, and I was squashed between them in somewhat of a hug as the water hit. We were blown backwards off our feet and hit the wall. I tried to swim upward, but the water kept slamming me against the wall again and again. Strangely, I remembered something that Dad had once said about drowning, 'I'd rather be hung or shot than drown, that's a rough way to die.' That was no help at the moment. Suddenly I felt Rick's hand grab my wrist and pull me up.

"Sarah! Grab onto that bar!" Rick yelled to make himself heard. I grabbed the bar of what was probably a little ventilation hole to let fresh air in, in ancient times.

The water was rising fast and I sucked in as much air as I could, but after awhile could only keep my nose and eyes above water. I could hear Rick and Evelyn talking, but I couldn't hear what they where saying, the roar of the water was too loud in my ears.

Suddenly the walls and ceiling began to rumble, and even I could hear a giant BOOM, from somewhere on the other side of the wall, and I was suddenly jerked out of my grip on the ventilation bars and sucked along with the unbreakable current. I waited to drown, to run out of air, but was surprised when I could feel my face out of water, and realized that we where back in the temple, only the temple now had a large hole in the wall, and the pillars were toppled.

I looked up and was greeted by the sight of a very disheveled and surprised-looking Alex.

"Mum, Dad, Sarah, I can explain everything."


	2. Golden Sun

**A/N: Well, ain't this a nice surprise. Two chapters in a day. Trust me, it's only because this one was already finished...it just needed more description. Yeah, I'm kind of a description freak...and it shows.**

**I will be doing more review replys for this story. If you have questions, and you don't leave a signed review, I'll answer them on here. If it's signed, I'll do a review reply. **

**YasmDaSpaz- I'm glad you liked Scarab Locket! Don't worry, Sarah will NOT simply be part of the original story line. As for her romance interests...it's a little complicated at the moment, you'll see part of it in the next chapter. Thank you very much for reviewing, and I hope you like this chapter!**

* * *

Chapter 2

Golden Sun

"Sarah! Sarah! Come on!" I heard Alex jumping out of bed and running toward mine. "Come on! Wake up! The sun's rising!"

Well, I had promised him I'd get up to watch the sunrise with him as we sailed into London. Although, at the time of said promise, I'd forgotten how tired I'd be. We'd had a _very _late night last night, the boat had stopped in France for a few hours. A few _late_ hours, and then Alex was hyped up sugar for a while after that.

"I'm coming Alex." I groaned as he jumped onto my bed and sat, lightly, on my stomach to wake me up. Forcing myself awake, I sat up in bed. Alex jumped off me, before I start tickling him like I'd threatened to do last time he did that, and started to run to the door.

"Dressing gown, little brother." I stopped him, throwing my own over my nightdress. "And shoes." I said, sliding into mine before he could tease me about forgetting mine.

Once impatiently dressed in said clothing, Alex opened the door. "Come on!" He ran out it. I followed him, grabbing the cabin key and locking the door, and walked out on deck.

I had to admit, it was breath taking. The sun rose like a golden ball of fire, steadily chasing away the dark blues and purples from the horizon and turning the sky a beautiful golden brown, then as it finally rose high enough, a pale blue.

"Wow." Alex breathed beside me as the sun finally rose above the horizon.

"Wow." A voice behind us said. Alex and I jumped and turned, Rick and Evelyn were behind us, dressed already.

"Sarah and Alex, quite for a whole half hour. That is breathtaking." Rick joked.

"Thanks." I said sarcastically, smiling. "Come on Alex, we need to get dressed, the other passengers will out on deck for breakfast soon, and it would look a tad bit awkward if we were still in our night clothes."

* * *

I sighed in relief as I walked into the house. As much as I loved Egypt, it was a relief to be home. Not bothering to take off my coat and scarf, I walked immediately through the living room to the stairs and down to the end of the upstairs hall, to my room. Every time I came home from a trip, it was like walking in it for the first time, except for the fact that it didn't seem quite as big as it had nine years ago. I loved it, the large wooden four- poster bed, with Horus carved into the headboard, and the Eye of Horus carved on the footboard. The light blue and gold canopy that went over it, and the walls, which had been bare and dark blue, save for a picture of the pyramids or two when I'd first moved in here, were now covered with framed pictures either ones that Uncle Andrew had drawn or painted, or black and white family picture photographs, taken when my mother was still alive, or of ones I'd drawn of Rick, Evelyn, Alex, Jonathan, Dad, Uncle Mark, and Uncle Andrew, and what little memories I had of my mom (it was boring to just draw her from the family pictures), and the horses, cows, and donkey's from the ranch. I even had one of Dr. Chamberlain. I didn't put any pictures up that I'd drawn from my dreams, though; I had enough of those at night without seeing them in the daytime. The floor was polished wood (the same in the hallway, which was fantastic for sliding on in socks), the same color wood as the furniture, and it had a few rugs on it, matching the colors of my room. I had a bookshelf, and a large, nearly picture window, with a window seat and light blue cushion. A friend that I'd had in Junior High, before she'd moved away, had helped me paint the white ceiling so that it looked domed, with the very top a night sky, a beautiful midnight blue, with a full moon peeking out from behind a dark cloud. It was beautiful, and I knew that Uncle Andrew, had he seen it, would have thought it was amazing.

There was just one thing missing, Isis, my coal black, green-eyed cat, who, while I was home, never left my side, and while I wasn't, almost never left her favorite spot on one of my pillows. I laid myself flat on the floor, lifting up the dust ruffle around my bed. Some times, on rainy days, I would find her under there, playing with a missing sock or two of mine. Nope, no Isis, not even a missing sock. Though if there was, I might be scared to touch it. We'd been gone for nearly two weeks! I stood back up and looked in my closet. No Isis. In the clothes hamper; still nothing.

When I didn't find her in my room anywhere, I walked down the hallway, searching all the little niche's as I did so. Still not seeing her, I walked down the stairs.

"Year of the Scorpion, thought you might like that." I walked in as Evelyn handed Alex a book.

"Mum, have you seen Isis?" I asked.

"No Sarah, remember, Mrs. Dunton promised to take her while we where gone?" Evelyn looked at me, concerned, and I knew why: normally I never forgot where Isis was, gone for two weeks or not.

"Sorry mum, I guess it's just these weird dreams I've been having. I can't keep my mind on anything anymore." Indeed, I had been having strange dreams even before we started out to Egypt. Every night, it was different scenes, but always I spoke perfect ancient Egyptian, and could understand what they said back. And they always called me "Sorceress". I had had weird dreams before then too, but not nearly so often

"That's odd." Evelyn replied, her brow furrowed as she thought "I've been having strange dreams too."

"Maybe it's just a coincidence." I said hopefully. I really did hope it was just a coincidence, I hadn't forgotten what had happened the last time I'd had feelings of familiarity in places I was sure I'd never set foot in, and I was sure that dreams couldn't be good either.

"Rick says it could have something to do with the Egyptian new-year." Evelyn said, walking away and turning towards the chest.

The problem of Isis being gone solved, I grabbed a hardback book off the shelf and sat down on the floor, taking out a few pieces of paper and a pen from my skirt pocket. I'd been drawing random things from my dreams, or sometimes Isis, I always drew her when we were away, recently. I looked at the drawings. No certain drawing took up all of the page, it was usually 10 or so on the same sheet, like I'd done when I was younger. I looked over them, there were a lot of Imhotep, some of a girl who couldn't be much older than myself, who looked a lot like Evelyn, and a few of another woman, who, through the dream, I'd identified as Anuk-su-namun, and some were random objects, like a dagger, a statue, or a hand mirror. None of them made any sense to me, and I wished that I could find some way to get in touch with Ardeth, maybe he'd know about them, or could at least recognize the importance of something and point me in the right direction for research, but I knew that he lived miles away from any phone, so there was no hope there.

"Hey, Sarah, have you seen the key to the chest?" Evelyn asked.

"No, I didn't bring it in, Alex did." I said, putting the papers and pen back in my pocket, and put the book on the table, moving to where Evelyn was looking for the key.

"Alex, have you seen the key?" Evelyn asked.

"I think it's in my pocket." Alex said, sticking his hand in his pocket, and then he looked slightly panicked, apparently it was gone. Evelyn must've interpreted the look the same way I did, because she knelt next to him, and began searching his pockets. I figured he must've dropped it somewhere, and started to look on the floor.

"Alex, I'm serious, if you've lost that key you're grounded." Evelyn said sternly.

"Mum, I haven't _lost _it I just can't _find _it." Alex said, and I had to repress the urge to laugh. Alex was always funny without meaning to be, and the fact that he didn't mean to be was hilarious in itself.

"Well you better start _finding _it then." Evelyn said, choosing, at this moment, to ignore the humor in his statement.

"I will Mum, there's nothing to worry about." Alex tried to reassure her, more to try and keep her from grounding him than anything else. I hoped she didn't ground him either. He didn't fancy not being able to go to the museum for a week, and I didn't fancy having to go by myself. I might have to force Jonathan to go with me to keep me from feeling nervous on all the back-ways Alex and I took.

"Good evening." A deep voice said from the entrance to the hallway. I jumped up, startled, and Evelyn stood up slowly. A dark skinned man was standing in the doorway, his arms crossed, and smirking.

"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" She asked, the dangerous tone in her voice giving me a mental image of Dad teaching me how to punch when I was seven, and now I tried to remember some things that Uncle Mark had said about it too.

"I'm looking for the chest, of course." He answered, still smirking. Alex grabbed it, and pulled it off the table. Unfortunately, that only served to draw the man's attention to it.

"Give it to me now." The man said quickly, and dangerously.

Evelyn moved over to the bookshelf, or one of them, that held mostly trinkets from digs that we'd been on, and grabbed a sword. I looked at her, worried, did she even know how to use that?

"Get out, of my house." She growled, raising the sword.

"Woah, mum, maybe not the best idea." Alex said, voicing my thought.

I just stood there, thinking of things that Dad and Uncle Mark had taught me, over nine years ago. My concentration was broken when three other men appeared behind the first one. This was not good. We weren't outnumbered by much, but Alex didn't really count, and these men were far more experienced than Evelyn and me combined.

"Definitely not the best idea." Alex said. "I think it's time to yell for Dad now."

I moved in front of Alex, hoping the men wouldn't really pay attention to him. He didn't know how to fight at _all_.

"Now I will kill you and take it anyway." The man said, starting to walk toward us.

"I think not." I turned toward the familiar, welcome, voice. Ardeth. I could have jumped on him and hugged him, but the more rational part of my mind convinced me to stay put, and just be happy that now we might not all end up in the hospital. Or dead.

"Ardeth!" Evelyn said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Yeah, I was just about to ask." I spoke up. He looked at me, not in surprise, but almost sudden recognition, like he hadn't quite realized who I was until he saw my face. I supposed I had changed more than I realized. Or that he wasn't expecting to see me here, after all, he hadn't known about Rick and Evelyn adopting me.

"Perhaps explanations are best kept for later." He said. I shrugged slightly, and turned back to the men.

"Ardeth Bey." The dark skinned man said, smirking still. Good grief! Did he have any expressions other than smirking and a neutral poker face?

"Loch Na." Ardeth said respectfully, and I knew that this man was a familiar adversary of his, he must've known to always treat an enemy with respect, like Uncle Mark had taught me. Of course, he'd been talking about rattlesnakes and coyotes, and other dangerous animals that we might find on the ranch, at the time, but I figured the same rules still applied. Some humans really weren't that different from snakes, when you think about it.

Without warning, a fight broke out. One of the men ran toward me, probably thinking I was an easy target. I figured he was trying to choke me or some-thing similar; by the way he was headed toward me. It seemed like forever as I let my fist fly, and then it seemed like it was in slow motion as it slammed into his nose. I wasn't sure if I broke it or not, there was only a little bit of blood, and it only surprised him, but I took the extra second to kick him in the stomach. I was much better at kicks; Dad and Uncle Mark had made sure of that, as my arms were never terribly strong. The force of my kick sent him stumbling away, and I stumbled backwards, knocking into someone. I whirled around, and was about to let my fist fly again, when I realized it was Ardeth.

"Sarah!" He said. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I replied. "You okay?" He nodded, and turned back to Loch Na, or whatever his name was. I turned, and kneed one of the men in a certain sensitive area. He reeled backwards, and I looked around for Alex.

"Let go!" Alex yelled as he wrestled with one of the men for the Chest. Eventually he lost his grip and went flying to the side, the man had flicked him away with the chest. I ran over and picked him up.

"Alex! Go hide, or stay out of the way, I don't want you to get hurt!" I half yelled over the noise. He nodded, for once he was actually listening to me, and ran behind one of the bookshelves.

I punched another man in the cheek, and knocked him over, probably by surprise, but he pulled me down with him. I saw the bookshelf about to fall on top of me, and brought my knee up, which ended up colliding with his chin. He let go of me, I guess he'd bitten his tongue or something when I did that, and I moved out of the way of the falling bookshelf. I started to stand up when-

"Mom!" Alex yelled. I turned my head from where I was kneeling on the ground, to see one of the men carrying an unconscious Evelyn away over his shoulder.

"Evelyn!" Ardeth and I yelled at the same time, sometimes I forgot to call her 'mom' when I panicked. I stood the rest of the way, and started to run after the man, but the one I had gotten away from on the ground grabbed my ankle, tripping me again, then stepped over me, and ran off with the man. I almost got up, but dropped back down when I saw Loch-Na throwing something across the room.

"Sarah!" Ardeth panted, after a few seconds, helping me up. "Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine. You?" I asked, even though he didn't _look _fine, there were still such things as cuts that looked worse than they were, I often got those.

Ardeth nodded, despite the wound on his shoulder. Then he smiled and ruffled my hair. "Not that I'd say any different if I was, I wouldn't want _little Sarah_, to get worried." He laughed.

"Hey!" I laughed, and lightly punched him in the shoulder, the not- hurt shoulder. "Who are you calling little?"

He laughed, and then I remembered that Alex was still in the room with us.

I turned around to him, and hugged him. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine." Alex said. "But what about Mom?"

"We'll get her back, we just need to find Dad first." I said, and we walked out of the den, into the hall and entrance hall, and out the front door. The atmosphere was completely serious again.

"Dad!" Alex exclaimed as he saw Rick and Jonathan outside, running to him. I ran up behind him, Ardeth walking behind me.

"Are you two alright?" Rick asked, concerned.

"Yeah, we're alright." I replied.

Rick looked over my shoulder, and the change in expression was the fastest one I'd seen yet, not even compared to when he'd been playing baseball with me and Alex and we'd broken a window. "What the heck are you doing here?!" He yelled, pinning Ardeth to a statue. "No, scratch that, I don't care." He said quickly, letting go. "Who the heck were those guys and where are they taking my wife?"

"My friend." Ardeth said, breathing deeply, trying to calm Rick down. "I'm not sure. But wherever this man is, your wife will surely be." He said, holding up a picture.

"Who's that?" I said, starting to reach for the picture so I could see it better, but Alex beat me to it, grabbing it from Ardeth's hands.

"Hey, I know him!" Alex exclaimed.

"Hey, that's the Curator!" I said, looking at the picture over Alex's shoulder, or over his head, more like.

"He works at the British Museum." Alex and I explained to Ardeth at the same time when he looked confused.

"Are you sure?" Ardeth asked us.

"You better believe them." Rick growled "They spend more time there than they do at home."

We walked around the house toward the car. Rick started talking to Ardeth, trying to figure out exactly what was going on.

"Okay, you're here, the bad guys are here, and Evy's been kidnapped. Let me guess" He started.

"Yes." Ardeth guessed what he was about to say. "They want to once again remove the Creature from his grave."

"I don't mean to point fingers" Jonathan spoke up "but isn't it _your_ job to make sure that _doesn't_ happen?" He asked Ardeth.

"The woman who is with them" Ardeth started his explanation. "She knows things, things that no living person could possibly know, she knew _exactly _where the Creature was buried." He paused for breath. "We were hoping she would lead us to the bracelet. She obviously did, and now _they _have it." He sighed.

We all stopped by the car. I started to ask something, but Alex started talking first.

"I wouldn't get too nervous just yet." He said, and pulled back his jacket sleeve, revealing the Bracelet.

"Alex!" I gasped, knowing what he'd done. He must've dropped the key somewhere after putting on the bracelet, I had a feeling that, when we got home after getting Evelyn, if I checked under the couch, I'd find it. That's why he'd been trying to calm her down from grounding him, rather than finding the key

"Is that gold?" Jonathan asked. No one paid him any attention, though I was trying not to snicker. Typical Jon.

"When I put it on I saw the pyramids of Giza, then _**woosh! **_Straight across the desert to Karnak!" Alex said excitedly, forgetting that Ardeth, let alone Rick, were both likely to overreact.

Ardeth, indeed, did look alarmed. "By putting this on, you have created a chain reaction that could bring about the next apocalypse!"

Alex gasped, and I rolled my eyes. Typical Ardeth, taking things way too seriously, again. We could deal with Imhotep again, if we had to, and anything else that flew, leaped, or crawled in our direction.

Rick apparently thought so too. "You" he pointed to Ardeth "lighten up." He pointed to Alex, "you, BIG trouble." He pointed at Jonathan and me. "You two, get in the car." Well, I thought that he would overreact, at least a little, but I guess he just knew that something was bound to happen when he brought cursed things back from Egypt.

We climbed inside the car; I sat in the front seat between Ardeth and Rick. I knew that if I sat in the back I would have to stay with Alex and Jonathan, and I wanted to go inside the Museum and help rescue Evelyn, even though I would probably be no help.

"I am sorry if I alarmed your son." Ardeth started as we drove down the road. "But you must understand, now that the bracelet is on his wrist we have only seven days before the Scorpion King awakens."

"We? What we?" Rick asked, clearly wanting as little as possible to do with Imhotep a second time, quite frankly I didn't want to either. We could handle him again, yes, but that didn't mean we _wanted_ to.

"If he is not killed, he will raise the army of Anubis and use it to destroy mankind and rule the earth." Ardeth said urgently, trying to persuade Rick.

"I take it that's not a good thing." Jonathan leaned up to my left.

"Oh he'll wipe out the world." Rick said sarcastically, yet we all knew it was the truth.

"Ah" Jonathan sat back "the old 'wipe out the world' ploy." He groaned.

We drove through London, and I finally recognized the path that Alex and I took when I picked him up from school and we walked to the Museum. We'd get there soon; the Museum wasn't a long walk from Alex's school.

Sure enough, the Museum came into view very quickly after that, and Rick parked along the sidewalk.

"Okay Alex, I've got a big job for you." Rick turned around, and Alex sat forward, listening closely and eagerly, hoping it was something big and exciting. "I want you to stay here and protect the car."

"I can do that!" Jonathan said anxiously. I rolled my eyes. I was just glad he hadn't mentioned me.

"Protect the car?" Alex said, annoyed, and disappointed. "Come on, Dad, just because I'm a kid doesn't mean I'm stupid."

"Sarah, I'm tempted to have you stay with them." Rick said, turning to me.

"No way, Rick, you know I can handle it." I said quickly. "My Dad already taught me how to use a gun."

He softened. He always did when I brought up anyone from my old family. I tried not to take advantage of it, though, I knew it was hard on everyone, including me.

"Okay." He said finally. "But I'm only giving you a pistol."

"Fine by me." I said, climbing out of the car behind Ardeth. Rick tossed me one of his pistols, and I made sure it was ready as he and Ardeth got their weapons. I was just glad to have some sort of weapon. I didn't think I'd get one at all, as I was likely to make things worse accidentally.

"Ready, Sarah?" Rick asked.

"Yes." I said, walking into the Muesum with them. I took the lead when we got inside, knowing by memory where the stairs to the Egyptian wing were sometimes they were a little hard to find. We climbed them quickly, and started to walk through the wing. We could hear low chanting as we passed through the artifacts, and it got louder and faster as we turned the corner to where the mummies were kept.

I nearly screamed as the mummies came to life. It wasn't slow and peaceful, no, they popped up quickly, shrieking and moaning, and waving their arms, confused why they were alive now, and stuck in glass cases, unable to move far. As much as I knew that they might hurt me if they were out, I hoped that there was someway, that didn't involve mutilating them, to put them back to rest, some of them looked sort of scared.

We moved quickly away from them, staying in the shadows as we neared the railing, which looked down over the spot where the ritual was being done.

"There's mom." I whispered and I pointed to her. She was watching Imhotep talk with another woman, whose face I couldn't see, but from what Imhotep was saying, it sounded like she was supposed to be Anuk-su-namun, or her reincarnation anyway.

"Okay, Sarah, Ardeth" Rick whispered and we leaned in so he wouldn't have to talk too loud. "Ardeth is going to stay here, Sarah, you get on the stairs, and I'll go rescue Evy."

"Alright." I whispered, and Ardeth nodded.

We looked at the ritual again, and Rick shook his head. "You know, a couple of years ago, this would have seemed _really _strange to me." He clapped Ardeth on the shoulder, and he walked off. I knew that I needed to wait until he almost had Evelyn before I risked being seen.

I watched him closely. I didn't bother listening to what they were saying, it was mostly Imhotep speaking in Ancient Egyptian, which I knew enough of to read the basics on pillars and tablets when we went on digs, but only a little bit.

I saw Rick almost to where four men were holding Evelyn, and silently moved down the stairs, to the platform between the staircase, concentrating on not making a noise.

"Rick!" Evelyn yelled as he caught her, and jumped out of the way of the fire coming out of, what looked like, a sarcophagus. I hoped they hadn't lit a mummy corpse on fire; that would have been kind of sad. I don't know why I felt so sorry for dead people. Mom had been the same way. Even the lowest peasant mummy was sent to the museum if she found it, or photographed and reburied, treated like a king the entire time.

I started shooting, trying to aim carefully, rather than my Dad's method of just firing bullets and hoping to hit something; I didn't have enough bullets for that. They were more interested in Ardeth anyway, and I concentrated mainly on attempting to pick off the guards. They still weren't paying attention to me, and I only had to duck when one of them let off a bad aim and missed Ardeth by a mile.

I stopped when Evelyn and Rick came running up the stairs toward me. We climbed the stairs as Imhotep picked up a vase, and began chanting something. He got louder, and was nearly screaming as we reached Ardeth at the top. He lifted off the lid of the vase, and the guard warriors (I had been told by Jonathan) that Jonathan had summoned back at Hamunaptra materialized in the dust.

"Oh crud." I whispered as they roared loudly, and we took off running through the museum, flying through the wing and down the stairs.

"Are you alright, mom?" I asked Evelyn as we ran out the door.

"Just fine." She replied. We ran toward the car, and she stopped, running back to pull a bench in front of the door.

"Honey, what 'cha doing?" Rick asked as he pulled her back. "These guys don't use doors."

We ran toward the car again, and I noticed something was off. Where were Jonathan and Alex? There didn't even seem to be anyone in the car. Rick voiced my thoughts, just as a giant, bright red, double-decker bus rounded the corner and stopped in front of us.

I only looked up to make sure it was Jonathan, then ran to the entrance, and into it with Evelyn. Ardeth came up behind me, and I handed him the pistol.

"Are you sure?" Ardeth asked.

"Positive." I said, blushing. "I told Rick that I _knew how _to use a gun, I'd never actually _shot _a gun."

"Then you've got very good aim." Ardeth complemented.

"Not really." I said. "Usually I was aiming at the next person over."

"I was wondering why you shot that one guard in the foot." Ardeth laughed, ruffling my hair once again. I thought I heard him mutter "Ah, little Sarah." Under his breath as he took the gun, and walked to the back of the bus with Rick.

Jonathan drove away from the museum, and as we rounded the corner, and I could hear the sound of metal crunching, followed by Rick yelling loudly "No, no! Not my car!"

I looked at Jonathan and Alex as they gave nearly inaudible sighs of relief. "Jonathan." I said, leaning over his shoulder. "What did you do to Rick's car?"

"Um, nothing." Jonathan said, unconvincingly. "Nothing at all."

"Okay." I said "How about the key to it?"

"Um, I broke it." Jonathan said quietly and quickly.

"How?" I asked.

"I turned it too hard in the wrong way when I put it in the ignition." Jonathan said quietly so Evelyn couldn't hear, even though she wasn't paying attention.

"Okay, I was just wondering what was with the bus." I reassured him. Quiet honestly, I just didn't want to watch Rick and Ardeth fighting the warriors. Anything that reminded me of Hamunaptra gave me nightmares, still, even though I hadn't seen them before, and I didn't want to watch my adopted father, and the man who was a kind of uncle, and most certainly my best friend, fighting them.

I hung on to Jonathan's seat as he turned several times, but couldn't help but turn and look as I heard a thud outside, a gun had fallen on the hood, and before I knew it, Evelyn had grabbed it.

I closed my eyes tightly as I heard Ardeth scream, but opened them when I heard gunfire. Evelyn was shooting at the warrior, and after a few shots, killed it, knocking it out of the window.

"Oh no." Jonathan said quietly. I turned around, and cringed. We were headed straight toward a low bridge. I kept my eyes shut as I heard the tremendous noise of the top part of the bus being taken off.

As we were passing through the bridge, Rick came down the stairs of the bus, looking very, very disheveled.

"Are you alright?" Rick asked Ardeth. I gave Rick a hug, relieved that he was alright.

"This was, my first bus ride." Ardeth panted, smiling.

"I'll bandage that for you when we get home and I have something to bandage it with." I told Ardeth, indicating his shoulder.

"Thanks." He breathed, closing his eyes.

I walked to the back of the bus, looking up the stairs at the damage that'd been done, but not going up the stairs, it already looked dangerous from down here. Alex walked over too, miming gagging, and I giggled as I looked over and saw Rick and Evelyn kissing.

"Sarah" Alex looked up at me. "Can you promise that if you ever get a boyfriend, you at least won't _let_ me catch you kissing, okay?"

"Sure." I smiled and hugged him, just as a pair of huge, dark arms wrapped around both of us, cutting off our yells with his hands as he dragged us out of the bus, shoving us quickly into a car and slamming the door.

"Bind their hands and ankles, quickly!" A voice barked and I kicked out.

"Let us go!" I yelled, punching someone in the face. He wrenched my arms back, and tied them together, and someone in the front seat grabbed my ankles, tying them as well. As they were doing that, they put a gag in my mouth. Then one of the men, Lock-nah, it looked like, put Alex in my lap; he was tied up and gagged too.

I still yelled. The gag wasn't very good, and I could still be quite loud. Eventually one of the men yelled something in Arabic, I caught the word 'her', then the other one in the back seat with us knocked me on the head, turning everything into black.


	3. Dreams

**A/N: Yup! Another chapter. This one went through a bunch of changes, that's why it took so long. I had originally written it before I wrote the last chapters of Scarab Locket, so that's why it went through so many revisions. Tell me how you like it!**

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Chapter 3

Dreams

_Another dream. I thought as my dream-self woke up before dawn. I was used to not being able to dictate my movements or my words in my dreams, so I didn't find it surprising when I got dressed in some sort of costume, which I usually seemed to wear, it had two pieces, a top that left most of my stomach exposed, as well as my chest, but without showing any cleavage, and a skirt which seemed to be made of some strange material, like overlapped, very thick, gauze or something. Both pieces were decorated, mostly with leather and turquoise on the top a, large strip of leather along the neckline, and then another strap on the waistline of the skirt, and embroidered designs on the hem of the skirt. I put on a headdress, gold, with a single tear-shaped pearl at the end of a twisted gold chain, ending between my eyebrows, and sandals._

_I opened the door of my chamber, and started to walk through the palace, seeming to have no destination. A woman, who, from past dreams, I knew was Anuk-su-namun, stopped me._

"_Good morning, sister." She said, kissing my forehead. My mind seemed to flash, and I saw a vision of her walking aimlessly around the palace, or lying around on couches, as the sun moved through the sky._

"_You will have a lot of freedom today." I replied, kissing her forehead._

"_Thank you, sister." She said, walking away. This was normal, in my dreams, Anck-su-namun often had her younger sister tell her what the events of her day would be, and that was often all that they said to each other in the morning, instead they talked more in the afternoon. _

_From my past dreams, I'd grown used to the palace, and knew where hallways led and what was behind doors almost as well as my dream-self did. I knew what direction I was headed in, I was going to Imhotep's chambers._

"_Good morning, Sorceress." One of Imhotep's priests appeared by my side. _

"_Good morning, Aaftab." I replied. _

"_Would you have me accompany you to Lord Imhotep's chambers?" He asked._

"_Yes." I replied. "But please, do talk to me. You and the other's are always so silent."_

"_I do not answer for the others," Aaftab replied. "But you are breathtaking to me, and I find my words become like mud when I'm in your presence."_

"_You are very kind." I told him, still walking. "And you are very much a friend to me."_

"_Thank you, Sorceress." He said, smiling._

"_When we are talking in private like this you may call me my true name." I said._

_He looked puzzled, then sheepish. "I'm afraid, Sorceress, I do not know your true name."_

"_Indeed, you have never been told it." I replied. "I would not be surprised if the Pharaoh himself has forgotten it. Very well, I shall tell you." I paused. "It is Amunet." _

"_That is a beautiful name, Amunet." He said, and I could tell by the sound of his voice that he was blushing, though I couldn't see it through the gold body paint, but then he stopped talking as we arrived at Imhotep's chamber door. He knocked once, and Imhotep called for him to enter. He stepped inside, and announced me, saying that the Sorceress was there to see him._

"_Let her inside." Imhotep said, then "and please, leave us."_

_Aaftab walked out, and opened the door wider for me, bowing as I passed him, and I nodded. He closed the door behind me, and I turned to face Imhotep._

"_Amunet." He greeted, walking toward me, taking my hands, and leading me further into the room, to a couch, where I sat down with him. "It is always a pleasure to have you visit, but why so early?"_

"_I know of you and my sister, Anuk-su-namun." I said quickly. "I know that you disobey the Pharaoh because of love, and my heart believes you belong together."_

"_Then why do you address it?" Imhotep asked. "Why do you come to me?"_

"_I come to warn you." I replied. "It will not be a pleasant journey, and you will both suffer for it in the end, no matter which path you take."_

"_You are very kind, Amunet." Imhotep said, kissing my forehead like a brother. "But you need not worry, we will be careful. And we will find peace, no matter how hard the journey."_

_I nodded hoping that he would choose the best path, and he turned his head toward the window. "Ah! Ra greets us again!"_

_I turned, and stood, and we walked over to the balcony, the sun was rising. I breathed in the morning air, already getting hot, and stared at the shinning colors painted across the sky. Imhotep stared as well, I knew from past dreams that my dream-self and Imhotep both loved the sunrise. The strange thing was, I did too, and had long since stopped finding it disturbing._

"_I must go." I said suddenly. "The Pharaoh will want to see me soon."_

"_Yes, it would not be wise to keep him waiting." Imhotep said, and led me to the door, letting me out of his chambers. _

_Like he was tied to me by some invisible string, Aaftab appeared by my side as soon as the door opened. Imhotep looked at him, at first surprised, and then gave him a knowing look, smiling, as he closed the door._

"_Would you like me to accompany you back to your chamber's, Sorceress?" He asked. I nodded, and he led me quickly down the hall towards my chambers, then, as soon as we were close enough for it to be plausible that I had just awakened, he turned and walked quickly in the direction where we'd come. Hopefully, no one had seen us coming. The Pharaoh was a very suspicious man, and would get paranoid if he found out that his Sorceress and High Priest were meeting in secret in the early hours of the morning, no matter what the reason was._

I gasped, waking up quickly, to find the woman who said she was Anuk-su-namun staring at me. I realized I didn't know her real name, and quickly asked.

"Who are you?" I gasped out, looking around, I was in a bed, in a room that, by the entirely bland unisex decorations, was in a hotel somewhere, or maybe a ships cabin. By my slight dizziness, I guessed a ship's cabin. I had to be awake to get my sea legs, I had learned when I was younger that waking up on a boat, was not good for my head. I wasn't sea sick, the rocking just made me dizzy. It would pass in about five minutes.

"My name is Meela." She said. "I'm Anuk-su-namun, reincarnated." She said with pride, then, "and what is your name? Lord Imhotep tells me that you are the reincarnation of Amunet, the sorceress, and Anuk-su-namun's sister."

"I'm not so sure about that, but I'm Sarah O'Conell." I replied. "Where are we?"

"In the Atlantic ocean." Meela replied. "Near Spain."

"Naturally, we're headed for Egypt." I said, thinking out loud.

Meela laughed, and I was surprised to find it was a pretty, tinkling laugh. "I like you already, Sarah. I hope we can be friends, or, at the very least, I don't want to be enemies."

"Both of us would be dangerous enemies to have." I said, nodding. "But with all that's been going on I don't know if we can exactly be friends. I'm not exactly fond of being kidnapped, see. And it would be lying to say that I'm not still scarred and angry from what happened nine years ago."

Meela sighed, nodding, yet looked a little far away, as if she was remembering something. "Are you hungry at all?" She asked.

"No." I replied, which was true, I never seemed to get hungry when I was on a boat. "But I'd like to see my brother."

"Would you mind me accompanying you?" Meela asked. "I know both of you won't jump out a window, you two are smart enough not to do that, but Hafez would insist on someone staying with you two, for security."

"I'd prefer you to Loch-na." I said truthfully. I hated the man.

Meela laughed. "Most people do. Come on." She led me out of the cabin, and I saw that the boat we were on was similar to the barge that had taken Rick, Evelyn, Jonathan, Dad, Uncle Mark, Uncle Andrew and I to a landing point for the route to Hamunaptra. The one that had ended up being caught on fire, and sunk in the middle of the Nile. I would not be able to get to sleep easily on this thing, that was for sure. Meela led me across the long deck of the ship, passing a lot of guards along the way. But it was all very lax here, and most of them were joking and laughing in Arabic.

"Meela!" She and I both turned around, to see Mr. Hafez running toward us. "What are you doing?" He asked.

"I'm taking Sarah to see her brother." Meela answered calmly, like it was the most natural thing in the world to be walking up a ships deck with someone you'd just kidnapped.

"She should not be out of her cabin!" He said urgently. "She will escape with the boy! Lord Imhotep will be angry." He finished, somewhat lamely.

I cut in before Meela could open her mouth. "Honestly, do you really think that Alex and I are so stupid as to jump out of a boat, when land isn't even in sight? Are you really as clueless as you look?" I snapped. I didn't care that insulting the man probably wasn't a good idea. I had just woken up, and the bruise on my head, from when I'd been knocked out, was making me cranky by now.

Hafez looked at me, scoffed, then turned to Meela. "I must insist upon Loch-Na staying with them."

"Sarah is my charge." Meela protested.

"And Loch-Na is the boy's." Hafez said. "I do this only for your safety. The girl may yet have Amunet's powers, even without her true spirit."

Meela sighed, defeated. "Very well, come on Sarah, let's go find Loch-Na."

But we didn't have long to walk, Loch-Na approached us, as if he had read our minds (or had very good hearing) and silently grabbed my arm, silently jerking me away from Meela, and led me down the rest of the deck to where Alex's cabin was. We walked down a short hallway, made so that it allowed two doors to face each other, giving the cabins more room. He unlocked the door and threw me in roughly.

"Five minutes." He growled.

"Why so short?" I asked, simply to annoy him.

He gave no answer, and I assumed that Hafez was worried about Alex and I 'plotting.' I swear, how stupid can the man get? He closed the door, and immediately I was nearly tackled to the ground by Alex hugging my waist so tightly that I had to get him to let go so I could breathe.

"Sarah!" He exclaimed "where have you been?" We both sat down on the floor.

"I just woke up." I told him "it's kinda hard to say how long you'll sleep when they hit so hard to knock you out."

"Oh." Alex said, then "I haven't been outside at all."

"I'm sorry." I said. "I don't know how I got out. Meela just likes me or something."

"Who's she?" Alex asked.

"Anuk-su-namun." I said, and he nodded. Mom and Dad had told him the story before. "You'll probably meet her later. Right now she's telling me that Imhotep said I'm some sorceress, and her sister, reincarnated." I rolled my eyes.

"Do you believe her?" Alex asked.

"Not until someone gives me a reason to." I said. "Dreams or no dreams, I want proof first. How have they been treating you? They haven't hurt you or anything, have they?"

"No." Alex said. "The only time I've seen them all day is when they threw what I suppose passes for breakfast in here, then lunch. They don't talk to me at all."

"So what have you been doing all day?" I asked.

"Laying in bed and pounding on the wall." Alex grinned. I noticed that his bed was up against the wall that the guard leaned against, and I grinned back. "Sometimes the guard will get so annoyed that he'll bang his head on the wall." He said.

I laughed. "That's brilliant. And they can't do anything to you because of the bracelet."

"That's exactly right." Alex grinned, unbuttoning his jacket sleeve and rolling it back.

"Has it done anything?" I asked.

"No. Just sat on my wrist and made my whole arm heavy." Alex sighed, blowing his bangs. "Bloody useless thing." He said, as the bracelet slipped off his knee and clunked on the floor. He fell forward slightly as it pulled his arm along with it.

"Alex." I scolded. "Watch your language."

He stuck his tongue out at me. 'Yes, mum."

Suddenly Loch-Na threw open the door and picked me up by my waist, taking me out of the room.

"I'll get here again when I can, Alex." I promised him just before Loch-Na slammed the door closed.

"Lord Imhotep wants to see you." Loch-Na growled, and carried me back to the front of the boat.

"I can walk, you know." I looked up at him.

"Hafez seems to think you'll jump overboard, or get free and grab the boy, then jump overboard." Loch-Na replied, I thought I heard a slight groan of exasperation in his voice.

"Paranoid idiot." I muttered. "The last time I jumped off a boat was because it was on _fire_." I growled. Loch-Na, either convinced, or because he didn't want me muttering in his ear the entire length of the deck, set me down, standing and upright, but still held my wrist tightly as we walked the rest of the way.

Finally, when I thought he was going to lead me to the other side of the boat, Loch-na stopped, at a partially open door, and opened the door the rest of the way, pulling me in after him.

Imhotep, who had gloves, a mask, and a hooded desert robe on, turned toward me and, just like in my dream, took my wrists and led me further inside, motioning for Loch-Na to leave. After he had closed the door, he pulled me over to a couch and motioned for me to sit down on it next to him. He didn't let go of my wrists, and I was too scared to try and pull away, it was the old fear coming back. The brave part of my mind made an excuse that there was no point in fighting him; that I wouldn't win. Uncle Andrew always said to choose your battles wisely. Yes, that was true, but the real truth was that I was just too scared to protest. All my memories of what Imhotep had done were coming back as clear as if I hadn't tried to forget them for nine years, and right now it was all I could do not to close my eyes and cry.

"You have had dreams." He said, not a question, and his voice was deep and gravely.

"Yes." I answered, keeping my voice as steady as possible.

"Then you know who you are." He said confidently.

I shook my head. "I am no one else but me." My voice was still a little shaky, but it was a little stronger. 'You are your father's daughter' I chanted in my head, and, surprisingly, it actually helped. I'd probably have to keep doing that a lot.

"You do not believe, but you will, in time. She, Amunet, lives inside you, she is easier and easier to see in you. Her spirit is only asleep inside your very soul." He almost whispered. "I will show you once we arrive at Karnak, then you will see. You will believe." There was something hidden in his words, but I couldn't tell what it was.

"Why am I having these dreams now, when you recognized me back when I was only ten?" I asked, my voice steady now, and that gave me a little more courage to try and pull my hands away.

"Everyone is coming together." Imhotep answered, tightening his grip until I kept my hands still again. "Everyone and everything, they are slowly learning of their pasts and are being drawn together. The dreams waited until the time that was set had arrived, but I have known Amunet, you, since you were younger than ten years."

"And Meela?" I asked, wanting to know how she could figure out so much by herself. And how she could believe so strongly in something that was so impossible.

"It is her undying belief that she is Anuk-su-namun that gives her confidence, and understanding." Imhotep said, almost thoughfully. "She sleeps half the day, lost in dreams, and, gradually, she has become more and more like Anuk-su-namun, until it is almost hard for even myself to tell the difference between the two." He chuckled softly. Then he stopped and turned his head fully toward me again. "You have not asked the question I've been waiting for you to ask since you stepped into this room."

More memories of Hamunaptra. Great. Was he _trying_ to make me cry? "Alright then, I'll ask. What about that priest of yours at Hamunaptra?" My voice was steady, even through the memories, though it was hard to keep it that way.

"There was one of my priests, one of the younger ones, who, from the time he was eleven, had a brotherly affection for Amunet, which, by the time he was around the age of twenty one, and she was nineteen, had turned into love for her." Imhotep smiled, or, at least, I think he smiled, I heard the decayed flesh I knew was behind his mask moving, anyway. Maybe it was some memory he had of the priest, or Amunet, maybe both.

That made sense though. He would have "recognized", me, and probably was feeling the same brotherly affection he had for a young Amunet. So I had been afraid of a mummy who probably would have done me no harm, other than scaring me half to death. That made me feel just a little silly, and it certainly did explain the mummy's actions. But I didn't feel angry with Ardeth for killing the priest either. Although I knew the occasional 'Ardeth can do no wrong' thought that went through my head was very childish and, at times, way off the mark, he was still my best friend, and one of my childhood hero's. Even with now knowing the priest's motives, it didn't make him any less terrifying when it had happened, just slightly changed the feeling in the memories, and made those a little easier to go over.

And now I was beginning to get a little worried. Imhotep hadn't let go of my wrists the entire time, and still wasn't letting go of them now, even though neither one of us were talking. I wanted to leave before he changed the subject to something more painful. I didn't know why, but I was scared he was going to bring up old memories. Memories that were coming back way too clearly. Not the good memories, of watching Dad start a betting contest with Uncle Mark, and then both of them making Uncle Andrew around a hundred dollars richer in a single game of poker. Not of Dad and I getting so bored while riding to Hamunaptra that he put me on his shoulders while riding his horse, just so that he, and everyone else, would have something to watch, besides sand dunes. No, not those memories, I wasn't remembering the good memories. No, now I was remembering Uncle Andrew moaning when I found him in the hallway. The way he sounded when he tried to tell me what had happened, without his tongue. How he slumped in the saddle, and had to be tied to it, and had to lean against me, just to get him safely to Fort Byron. The doctor's horrified face as he saw what had happened to him. And his dead body. I could recall every detail of his body. His skin tone, the shape of his mouth in his last scream, his rumpled hair, his hands gripping the chair so tightly. Everything. And Uncle Mark, how hard he was blown backwards, so that he accidentally knocked me to the floor. That the thought in the back of my mind as he flailed and screamed in pain, was that this was a cruel twist of his words when he had once said that he'd go down kicking and hollerin'. How stiff, and impossible the arc of his body was when he stopped moving. How wide his mouth was stretched in a scream. And Daddy. He had been shaking so hard, so hard that he finally dropped his pistols. How I had felt him disintegrating away from me, even as I clutched onto him for all I was worth. And his scream, I had never heard anyone scream like that in my life, and I know it will haunt me until my dying day. How his corpse fell backwards on top of me, and how he hardly weighed anything. His body was reduced to nothing, nothing but a skeleton with dried skin stretched over him, clothes hanging off of him, and a silent scream frozen on his face. The very man I had screamed for when I'd fallen off Cecil once, and broken my arm, and he'd heard me and come running, even though I was in the middle of one of our biggest pastures, that man, was reduced to nothing, fallen on top of me. And then I had to crawl out from underneath him. That's another thing that will haunt me if I live to be two hundred, crawling out from underneath him.

Suddenly I realized that Imhotep had let go of my wrists, and that tears were pouring down my face. Taking the opportunity given to me, I jumped up and wrenched the door open, running out onto the deck, then down the deck to my cabin. The door wasn't locked, I guess they felt no need to lock it when I wasn't there. I flung it open, letting it bang against the wall. I dived onto the bed, curling myself into a ball, as if the memories wouldn't come to me if I curled up tight enough.


	4. Connections

**A/N: Okay, so I know you're probably really annoyed with me- I don't update in FOREVER, and then it's kind of a short chapter. Well, not really short- but short in comparison to the last chapter. I just wanted to get something up- so I just kinda wrapped up the chapter and posted it.**

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Chapter 4

Connections

Meela was in a bad mood. She'd woken up this morning, scared, because she hadn't had a dream. That wouldn't have bothered most people- but she was in the position she was in _solely because of Anck-su-Namun. _I could see why she was worried- if she lost Anck-su-Namun's memories, she could- no, _would _loose her relationship with Imhotep. And that relationship was the only thing that was giving her everything she wanted. As it was, all that really meant for me was, I shouldn't ask her if I could go see Alex. She would only scowl and leave the room to go sulk on the boat deck.

And there was no point in laying around in bed in my underclothes all day. After putting the same clothes back on- I found those pieces of paper and the pen that I had tucked in my pocket shortly before the fight in the house. Funny how the odd little things stuck with you, but, of course, the pockets in this skirt were amazingly deep- I probably could have kept an over-excited frog in my pocket and it wouldn't have been able to find it's way out.

I grabbed a hardback Bible from the drawer in the table next to the bed- and I found it funny that, while I was surrounded by a ship-full of people who had probably never seen this book in their lives, much less read it, I could still find the Book containing the words of my faith in the oddest places. But I didn't dwell on it- and I simply put one of the pieces of paper that wasn't quite full yet over the cover and started to draw. I- unlike Meela- had had another dream. This one had been about Amunet and Anck-su-Namun. Again. I was getting tired of seeing Anck in these dreams- because I usually drew what I had dreamed _about, _and it was getting kind of annoying, when I'd try to draw Alex or something- but the picture would somehow morph itself into Anck- usually in some part of my dream from that night.

Much to my annoyance, this fact was not lost on Meela. I was about halfway finished with the drawing (Anck, again- this was _more _than a little annoying) when she stopped sulking for a few moments, and picked up one of the filled pages beside me. Another one full of pictures of Anck, Imhotep, and quite a few of Aaftab (pictures of him filled the back page- I dreamed about him a lot) and a few very small drawings were just of small, seemingly random, objects.

"I'm in your dreams?" She asked so suddenly that I answered quickly on impulse:

"Yes." And then sighed, the annoyed tone in my voice. "Though I really wish that you weren't in them so much, it's beginning to effect my drawing." Realizing that what I'd just said was rude, I amended. "Sorry, it's just that you have no idea how annoying it is to try and draw your cat- only to some how end with a picture of you."

Meela laughed, but then, as I suspected she would, began her bombardment of questions. Little things, that I thought didn't matter, like "What time of the day do we meet?" "Do we both always wear similar clothing- or is it just me?" "How often do you have visions about me?" I think we spent over an hour discussing Anck-su-Namun and Amunet, mostly comparing observations from dreams. It was not enjoyable in the least for me- I thought about the two enough between dreams and drawings without spending hours talking about them; though I think the opposite could be said for Meela. For her, it almost seemed to make up for the lack of a dream that night, and her mood quickly lightened, though mine darkened further, until, at about 10:30, she finally realized how long we'd been talking.

"I can't believe it- I've kept talking for three hours." Meela stared in disbelief at the clock on my bedside table. "You must be so hungry." She said apologetically.

"Yep." I said, still annoyed. I hadn't eaten much yesterday- and I was as hungry as a bear now, and, as a result, unbelievably grouchy. The talk had not improved my mood.

"I'm sorry- come on." Meela slid off the bed, I did the same, and she opened the door, leading me down the deck. Apparently, this barge had exactly the same layout as the one I'd traveled on nine years ago- there was a deck near the stern that looked like it was supposed to be a saloon sort of spot. But no one was playing cards, like people would, in fact, there was no one there at all, save for a tired- looking bartender. From the looks of things, he seemed to serve as a cook on here, as he was muttering in Arabic, but cursed in several different languages when he burned a batch of eggs.

Meela led me up to him, and said something in Arabic that I didn't understand. Of course, I only really knew enough to have an extremely polite conversation with anyone- and an extremely short one as well, so when the cook handed me a plate of eggs, which, surprisingly, were not burnt, I thanked him- in what was probably the most proper form of Arabic that he'd ever heard in his life. The look he gave me was mostly total shock, but then he smiled so broadly I thought that his jaw was about to fall off- and started saying something happily in such rapid Arabic, that I could only smile, pretend like I understood, and thank him again, before Meela all but dragged me away.

After breakfast, Meela did let me see Alex- for more than five minutes, and without anyone hovering over us, which was a miracle in itself. Poor Alex- he was not treated terribly well. He wasn't abused, but you could tell that he hadn't seen sunlight since we'd come on the barge. Not because he was acting scared or anything- but because he was much more hyper than usual. As soon as I walked in and shut the door, he tackled me with much more enthusiasm that usual, and then asked me what time it was. TIME? Alex doesn't care about time! I figured that out when he was five years old and woke me up at three in the morning on Christmas- then proceeded to wake me up every hour on the hour.

"Sarah, when do you think we're gonna get to Egypt?" Alex asked.

"Sometime today." I said. "Meela said we're off the coast of Africa now."

"I just want to get off this bloody ship!" Alex whined, and it was in the spirit of brother and sisterhood that I didn't scold him about his language.

"I know- I'm ready to as well." I said, twirling a pen with my fingers. "But at least I've been on deck."

"And I've been stuck in here the whole time." Alex finished the thought. Then he changed the subject. "Do you think Mum and Dad are coming for us?"

"You know they are." I said, a little concerned why he would think otherwise. I pulled him in a hug. "They just might have a little trouble starting off and getting out of London, that's all. But they'll be here."

"You sure?"

"I'm absolutely positively sure."


	5. Trains

**A/N: Hey guys, sorry again for both the late update and the slightly shorter chapter. Life has been....life. Crazy, hectic...etc. **

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Chapter 5

Trains

"I hate trains."

"What?" Meela turned toward me from where she'd been looking out the window. I was sitting with my arms crossed on the table, and my head rested on them, and I'm sure I was wearing an expression that was a little queasy, bored to tears, and slightly annoyed.

"I hate trains." I repeated simply.

"Why?" Meela laughed slightly. She rested her elbow on the table that separated us, and let her chin rest in her hand.

"I never liked them as a kid." I said. "No matter what age I was- my mother could take me on a train when I was a baby, and I would cry almost the whole time- or so my dad said. We used to live near a train track before we all moved out to the ranch in the middle of nowhere. I supposed I never liked the noise- but when I got older, I'd ride a boat, horse, donkey, mule, or car- but I'd always complain when it came to trains."

"And I take it you're not terribly thrilled now." Meela smiled.

"No. Trains too bouncy to even allow me the luxury of drawing to distract myself." I said, then turned to the window again. "And I've got a guilty conscience."

"Why?" Meela asked. Wow, she was genuinely interested. I think this was the first personal conversation we ever had without her bringing up Anuck and Amunet.

"Those men." I said, not looking at her. By 'men' I meant the three men who would have killed us in the tomb- and who'd I seen face-to-face a few hours ago, when they had delivered their own demise- that chest. That horrible chest- which, given a chance, I would happily, oh so happily, smash to pieces.

"Sarah, those men would have killed you." Meela said.

I turned back to her, resting my elbow on the table, which, in turn, supported my forehead, which was resting in my palm.

"Meela." I started. "For once, I don't care that they would have killed me." I paused. "Have you ever seen Imhotep kill a man? Like he's probably already done to these men?"

"No." She answered, her voice filled with something like pride.

"I have. Twice. And seen the corpses of three." I paused. "It's horrible- cruelty in its highest, most painful form. As you can see, I've never felt the pain personally, but I have heard my Uncle Mark Henderson screaming, led my Uncle Andrew through the streets when he was blinded, and I have felt my own father shake in fear when Imhotep has approached- and then I heard him scream- and I have felt his life being ripped away from my very grasp- until he weighed less than a newborn baby. These were the same men that comforted me when my mother died- though they were going through grief as well. These were the same men who raised me- I've seen them nearly cut off their own fingers while working, or break a bone, or get trampled under a horse- and I have never heard them scream, or felt them shake, or seen them writhe in pain as they did when they were murdered in the same fashion that those men."

"Sarah- that was your father and uncles." Meela interrupted, I was standing up at this point, and I think she was trying to get me to sit back down.

"I don't care!" I yelled. "I don't care that those men tried to kill me- I don't even care that they tried to kill the rest of my family. I have felt fear like no other before it, and I have seen the pain caused, and I cannot, I absolutely cannot feel any hate for them! I can only feel sympathy for anyone going through that!" I was gesturing angrily and wildly at the door- even the dumbest Arab guard could tell what I was screaming about. "I cannot help but sympathize, and I cannot help but hate their tormentor, their killer!"

"He's doing it for-" Meela tried to defend Imhotep but I wouldn't hear it.

"I don't care! It's murder! I don't care who it's preformed on- or how innocent or not that person might be, it's murder!" I yelled louder.

"Amunet would have-" Meela was getting upset now.

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT AMUNET! I AM NOT HER!" I screamed. "Though I have dreams, I am not her! I refuse to believe it!" I kicked over a chair, sending it flying across the compartment. By now, I think our dear Curator, who fancied himself Imhotep's priest or something, was beginning to worry for Meela's safety. For I soon found myself with my hands tied behind my back- with a weak gag around my mouth. That gag didn't do much- now I was yelling at the guards to "put me down- you pigheaded idiot!" and kicking as much as I could reach- I think I broke one man's nose and bruised another's stomach- before being knocked out again. Let it be known that I inherited my father's temper.

That night, I didn't dream of Amunet, I dreamt of my family. Not Rick, Evelyn, Alex, or Jonathan- my American family- Mum, Dad, Uncle Mark, and Uncle Andrew. It wasn't a memory dream that left me crying when I woke, nor was it what I called a "future" dream, that I often had just after Hamunaptra- where it featured my family as if Mom had never gotten sick, or if we'd never gone to Egypt. Those left me crying as well.

The dream was strange, I was in my room in England- but Mom was sitting next to me. Well, kind of. She was sort of, transparent- but only partially- like a reflection in a glass window. She looked like she did before she got sick- pretty tanned skin and long black hair, in a braid that went all the way down her back, finally stopping at the top of her thigh, tied with a sky blue ribbon that she always put in her hair- the ribbon too slim and too short to be of any good anywhere else around the house. She wore the same clothes she always wore on digs- an old khaki shirt- the sleeves rolled up to her elbows, and full-length skirt that was too big for her- held onto her waist with an old strip of leather.

Her voice was the same as I remembered it. She was in the process of telling me some story- something that had happened when I was too young to remember, when Dad and Uncle Mark walked in, as casual as if it was the ranch house- but then, they were transparent as well. They looked the same as the day we left for Egypt. Only then did I notice that Uncle Andrew was already in the room- sitting on the window seat with a sketch pad and a pencil in his hand, looking at the paper, and occasionally looking up- his face deep with concentration.

They were here- but they weren't. Part of the living- but among the dead as well. They acted as if nothing was wrong- that we had always lived in London, in a fancy house that didn't suit us, with fine furniture that, had they been alive, would have been covered with dust as soon as they blew through the door.

Then the room faded. They stayed where they were, but the room faded into nothing. They grew more solid- until they were just like a normal human- but washed out looking- with a sort of white light around them. Mom held my hands, looking into my eyes.

"Sarah, trust your family, the ones you love, and no one else. The other's will betray you, and they would have you join us a lot sooner than planned."


	6. It's Not Possible

**A/N: Hey guys, sorry this is taking so long between updates! Let's just say that life got in the way m'kay? And I really appriciate the reviews! I try my best to reply to them, I really do. And I think this is the chapter that a lot of people were waiting for. Enjoy it!**

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Chapter 6

It's Not Possible

I woke up to sand. Sand, and the dark night sky, or at least, what I could see of the sky through the old temple. Where had Alex told me we were going? Pyramids at Giza…Karnak. We were at Karnak. Okay. Now what?

I tried to sit up, and immediately wished that I hadn't. The temple walls spun like crazy, until I gave up again and laid back down, closing my eyes. Someone laid a hand on my shoulder. I assumed it was Alex- who else would even bother to wake me? I reached out to grab the hand, but then stopped about halfway through the motion, thinking. This wasn't Alex. Alex would jump on me, or yell, or shake me. Who was this?

I opened my eyes, and, when I could see the face that the hand on my arm belonged to, yelped, and moved away quickly, sitting up and moving away. Or I tried to- I was so dizzy that I didn't get very far. Why was I dizzy? Surely a blow to the head couldn't have done this. But then again, my head had taken quite a beating this trip. At any rate, it didn't do any good, as it was Imhotep who was next to me, and simply moving backwards and yelping isn't going to do any good.

He grabbed my wrist and pulled me to my feet, forcing me to walk with him as he moved deeper into the city.

"Where are we going?" I asked. He didn't reply.

After a few more seconds, I tried again. "What are we doing?" Again, no reply.

We came to a small shallow pool- the water was black- either reflecting the night sky or showing the bottom of the pool, I couldn't tell. He motioned for me to sit down on the edge, and then did the same.

He began speaking, and I, strangely, I could understand him- though I could tell he wasn't speaking Arabic.

"It is time to truly show you who you are." He said cryptically. "And what you where to your ancient people. And to me." He said the last sentence quietly, almost as if he were ashamed to utter it- as if it was some sort of secret not to be spoken of.

Suddenly I could see something in my minds eye- a corridor, lit with torches. It was similar to the ones I had seen in my dream, yet it was different. I could hear the dripping of a far away water clock, but beyond that there was no other sound besides that of my bare feet.

I came to a door, looked around to make absolutely sure no one else was in the hall, and then opened it quickly- the door sliding on soundless hinges. I shut it behind me. It was dark in this room- dark save for one, no two candles on a small chandelier suspended from the ceiling. There were two small couches in the middle of the room, separated by a wooden table that held nothing but an unlit candle. I sat down at the one farther from the door. The only sound was the dripping of another water clock on a small table in the far corner of the room.

I was nervous, I fiddled with my shawl, my sandals, my headdress, waiting. Again and again, I looked toward the door. Drip, drip, drip, drip. I was so conscious of that water clock. Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip. The seconds dripped by. Then, suddenly, I could hear another sound- the sound of bare feet outside in the hall. I sucked in a quiet breath- it was either who I was waiting for, or a guard. I would either finally finish this agonizing task, or be dragged before the Pharaoh to die. The footsteps stopped just outside the door, and slowly, quietly, the door opened.

Imhotep. It was Imhotep. He closed the door quickly, only after did I dare speak, and breath a sigh of relief.

"For a moment I thought you were a guard."

He smiled, and shook his head. "You should know by now- no guard ever comes down here."

"It would be just my luck if one did." I returned.

He smiled again, laughing quietly, and sat down on the opposite couch.

"I feel rather like one of those cheap fortune tellers down in the slums." I said lightly. "Do you wish to know your future." I joked, impersonating one of them.

Imhotep laughed, then said "In a way, that's exactly what you're doing."

"Though I'm sure my predictions are more accurate." I said softly.

Imhotep smiled. "I know." Then he held out his hand. I reached for it, then stopped.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked. "You might not like what I tell you."

"I know." Imhotep replied seriously. I nodded, and looked into his eyes, reaching for his hand- and taking it.

A thousand things flashed by me at once: a ceremonial fight between Anck-su-namun and Nefertiti. The Bracelet of Anubis. Guards. Priests. The Pharaoh. Imhotep.

But then it slowed down, and a voice- like my own, but slightly more melodic, like a younger girls- the one I'd been speaking in during this vision- filled my head.

"Sarah, I have to take over your body." It said bluntly.

"_What?!" I screeched. _

"_You must trust me. Imhotep's trying to kill you." It said urgently. "Only temporarily- I swear. You'll be yourself again soon."_

"_Who are you?" I asked._

"_You, and yet not you." The voice replied._

"_That was cryptic- mind giving me some more information?" I asked sarcastically._

"_Sarah, please!" The voice begged, then continued. "I am Amunet. You are my reincarnation."_

"_Oh that's nice." I snapped._

"_Sarah, we don't have time!" Amunet begged. "You have to trust me!"_

"_What if you just take over my body?"_

"_Trust me."_

"_Fine." I sighed, giving in._

When I snapped back into the vision, it was the same as it was before- images flashing by me: Imhotep, Anuck-su-namun, the Pharaoh. Only now it was different, they were in a room alone. Kissing. Anuck-su-namun was stabbing the Pharaoh. Imhotep had taken the Pharaoh's sword and was finishing the job. Mejai storming in. Anuck killed herself. Imhotep racing to Hamunaptura. Ritual. Medjai. The Hom Dai.

"_Now!" Amunet gave me a warning. _I could hear her thoughts like my own, it was really weird.

I snapped out of the vision, the table, and Imhotep's hand rising to meet me as I slumped over- shaking like mad.

"Amunet!" Imhotep's voice was alarmed, but he still didn't dare speak too loudly.

I struggled to get words out, trying to warn him of his destiny. "Hom Dai." I breathed out, and then died.

When I came to- I could tell that Amunet was the one controlling my body. How? Because I wanted to sit up immediately- I had fallen over, onto Imhotep's lap of all places, and found I couldn't.

Finally Amunet sat up. It felt so weird not to be able to dictate my own movements, or speak when I wished. Maybe that was a good thing- because right now I wanted to punch Imhotep in the jaw.

"Amunet." He breathed, taking her (my?) hands.

"Imhotep." She smiled. _Stop it, Sarah._ She growled in her (my?) head. She'd been referring to the fact that I was muttering insults at Imhotep in my head.

"What year is it?" She asked.

"The Year of the Scorpion." Imhotep replied. _I could have told you that much._ I muttered.

Her eyes widened. "So you're going to…" She trailed off, knowing that he would know what she meant.

Imhotep nodded. Amunet didn't reply but to ask:

"And my prediction…."

"If you mean the Hom Dai curse- you were right about that." He replied. "Unfortunately." He smiled a little, perhaps at some joke the two of them had had. I realized now more than ever that the two of them were more like siblings than she and Anck-su-namun were. Had it not been that the 'brother' in question was the man who had ruined my life, it would have been almost sweet. Almost.

I sat back and let them talk. I couldn't do anything else really. The funny part was that Amunet had to put up with my constant muttering. I know it's not her fault, really, but I can't help but find every '_Sarah, stop distracting me' _quite amusing.


	7. Water and Sand

**A/N: I'm sorry this took so long to update! *dodges items being flung* Originally I did the chapter a certian way, but was just hard to write and didn't flow well, so I re-did the chapter. And it definitely works better. Oh, and Sarah briefly mentions events from the ficlet "Of Muddy School Uniforms", so if you haven't read that, you might be slightly confused during that bit. If you want to read it, it's the second chapter in "Scarab Ficlets"**

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Chapter 7

Water and Sand

I was having a staring contest with a lady who was over 3000 years old. It wasn't really a staring contest, so much as a glaring contest. Anuck wanted to talk to Amunet, and I preferred to keep control of my body, thank you very much. So we sat, each in a separate bed, in the same room, trapped together on a barge. Anuck was, despite what everyone else might've said, very different from Meela. Where Meela would have been talking, Anuck was silent. Right now, Meela would have been talking to me, trying to persuade me to switch with Amunet, just for a second, so that they could talk. Anuck just glared at me, annoyed that I wouldn't give her what she wanted.

Bored, and (though I'm ashamed to admit) slightly intimidated by her constant glaring, I turned the other way, and fished the pen and paper from my pocket. I reached into the drawer, and grabbed out the hardback Bible I knew would be in there- it always was, I think it was a standard of any room that was meant to be inhabited by complete strangers. I put the pen and paper, and began to draw. After a few minutes, I was delighted to find that my picture of Cecil, both my horse and my mother's, did not turn into something from a dream. Finally! I could draw again!

Anuck, now thoroughly annoyed, left the room, slamming the door behind her. I shrugged, and went back to finishing a picture of Dad, and Mom. I sighed when I looked at it, fiercely blinking back the tears that threatened to surface.

_Sarah, Sarah, please. _It was Amunet, speaking inside my head. I knew what she wanted, and that was the last thing I wanted to give her. This was MY body, for heaven's sake!

"No!" I said outloud. I was in control of my body, and it was going to stay that way. Wasn't it already enough that, instead of dreams like I'd been used to, that I'd dreamed of my own life last night- not the happy memories either, but the events of nine years ago, and my mother's death. I'd woken up with tears streaming down my cheeks- and I was still angry with her. Was I sure that it was her fault? No. But I hadn't had nightmares that bad in quite a while, and they'd only returned with her appearance. That was reason enough, in my mind.

_Please! You're bored anyway. _Amunet begged.

"I don't want Alex to see you."I replied. It was true, I didn't want him even have a glimpse of, who would surely look like me, talking to Imhotep. That would look like betrayal of the most horrible fashion.

To her credit, she didn't say anything after that, having an idea of what I was thinking. But she was right, I was bored. I decided that I should probably go outside, or maybe eat something. I was losing weight on this trip- I hadn't eaten much. Which, about the time I remembered this, my stomach growled.

_Come on, Sarah, please!_ I heard her voice again.

"No. I didn't ask to have you stuck in my head. This is MY body, it's going to stay mine." I said stubbornly.

_And I didn't ask to be stuck inside your head._ Amunet replied.

"You're on Imhotep's side. You helped him in the past, I'm not giving you that chance again." I replied.

_That's not fair, and you know it._ Amunet replied.

"I don't care." I said, returning to my drawing. I was going to win this, she was Imhotep's friend, and Imhotep was the enemy, making her the enemy as well.

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When we reached Phliai, I was allowed to see Alex. It was a blessed relief, being able to talk with my adopted brother. I didn't tell him what happened, I didn't want to see any sort of look on his face, didn't want him to think that I wasn't the same person, the same sister, anymore.

"Sarah, am I going to die?" Alex asked.

"No! You're not going to die. Why on earth would you say that?"

"Because Imhotep told me the bracelet would kill me if we didn't get there in seven days within my putting it on." Alex replied. "And what if, when we get far enough, what if he doesn't let me get inside before the sun hits it?"

"I won't let that happen." I said firmly, pulling him in a hug. "When this is over, we're going to go home, and we're going to complain about the rain, and then we'll walk to the museum after it's done, and splash in the puddles like we did when I was still in school. And we'll make Mrs. Hudson cross- and everything will be back to normal."

"You're getting sentimental again, aren't you?" Alex asked suddenly.

"A bit." I smiled, and he laughed.

"See, you'll be fine. We'll be fine." I smiled. _And I'll get Amunet out of my head somehow, and everything will truly be back to normal._ I thought privately.

"Where are you going to go to the university?" Alex asked.

"Somewhere in London, near home." I said. "But I haven't applied yet, I'm going to wait a year."

Alex nodded, clearly thinking about something. But he didn't say what it was, and I didn't press him for it, I knew not to.

When it began to get late, Loch-Na came and dragged Alex away. I didn't see what the point was. They chained him up somewhere all night anyway, why couldn't we just stay together? But the Curator seemed to be dictating what Loch-Na did, and therefore where Alex went. Perhaps he thought that we would get away some how, as he had seen quite a bit of our mischevious, trouble-making sides when we were at the museum. Not that we made trouble, we merely plotted it. At any rate, the man was delusional- he seemed to think that either we could swim several hundred miles to land, or that we could somehow hijack the barge. Sure we were good at getting out of places, and weaseling into them, but we weren't _that _good.

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In the morning we left for land, and then spent the day heading to Abu-sembel. I spent much of the time listening to Amunet complain, and the camel I was riding was too rough for drawing. But I did read, as I had taken the Bible off of the barge, as even I didn't keep books in my skirt pocket. Alex had gotten a book somewhere too- perhaps he was lucky enough to find one that someone had left behind, as the one he had looked too thin to be a Bible.

We spent the night at Abu-sembel, as by the time we got there it was too dark to keep going, technically we could have kept going, but I suppose that they wanted to sleep.

Alex was worried, I could tell. I was getting worried as well; we only had a before the seven days were up.

We spent a fitful night at Abu-sembel. Everyone was nervous, perhaps because we knew it would be our last night in peace- tomorrow night we would enter the Oasis, and who knew what we would encounter there.

As usual, Loch-Na dragged Alex away sometime before we went to sleep, and I wandered the campsite, passing soldier's sitting in circles playing cards or talking. They always stopped as soon as they saw me, though. Perhaps they thought I knew what they were saying, which I didn't. They spoke very fast, and a lot of it was their local slang, of which I had no understanding.

It wasn't until I got away from the busy part of the campsite, nearing a sort of secluded place near where Imhotep and Anuck-su-namun were sitting, that I hit a bit of a snag as far as Amunet was concerned.

_Sarah, I'm sorry I have to do this._ I heard her voice say, and while I was still trying to figure out what she meant, I felt her fighting for control. I pushed back on her as hard as possible, and dropped to my knee's in the sand. She pushed harder, and she was stronger than I was. She shoved me to the side, and I could only be aware of what she was doing, and thank God that Alex was asleep already.

She walked over to where Imhotep and Anuck sat, sitting down calmly at Imhotep's left.

"_She gave you trouble_." Imhotep commented in Ancient Egyptian.

Amunet nodded. "_I was unwilling to do anything to her in the daylight, but after the boy was taken away the opportunity presented itself_."

"_Why did you not simply let her die with the vision?_" Anuck asked.

"_It seemed wrong._" Amunet answered. I was reminded then, that even though she was friends with Imhotep, and the sister of his lover, that she was generally still a good person.

I remained conscious, but not nessessarily alert, for most of the night, until Amunet moved to the side and pushed me forward sometime just before sunrise. As soon as she did so, I promptly fell asleep.


	8. The Oasis

**A/N: I'm so sorry for the lack of updates! And I'm sorry that this is a short chapter as well. I decided it was better to put up something rather than nothing after all this time. I've just had massive writer's block where this story is concerned. And life has been...crazy. Let's just call it crazy. **

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Chapter 8

The Oasis

"No, you great ornery thing!" I was losing patience with my camel very quickly today. The bad tempered animal I was riding on was more ornery than ever. I could tell he wanted to travel back to the sea, as he kept trying to turn right, away from the trail of camel prints made by our convoy, but I had to keep him on track, if only to stay with Alex. I was reminded, as if I needed it, why I loved horses so much more. Horses more or less responded to the rider, they were more likely to behave if the rider was easy on them, but camels started out ornery and stayed that way! The camel gave a bellow of protest as I turned him once again to the left, but he seemed to more or less give in at that point. Finally! I relaxed, at least the curator finally realized that I would not run away as long as they still had Alex, and so did not make me ride with someone holding my reins like some little child at a pony show.

However, one thing I have never been too quick to learn with large animals- if they were trouble before, they'll probably try the same thing again. When I relaxed, I loosened my grip on the reins slightly, as the horses I was used to always responded well to it, and when I did, the camel took off on a sharp right once again. Unprepared for the shift in balance, I went tumbling off the left side, and landed with a small cry of alarm, and landed in a heap in the sand.

"Of all the ornery animals…" I growled, frustrated, as I picked my self up from the hot sand, and brushed myself off. My father always said to get right back on when you fall off, but the problem was that my camel was no longer around for me to 'get right back on'.

I heard a low chuckle behind me, and turned around, my arms crossed and a scowl on my face.

"It's not-" I started to say 'it's not funny' but cut myself off when I realized who was, ever so expertly, turning their camel toward me. Imhotep, with a smirk of laughter on his face and mirth in his eyes. I huffed and blew strands of hair that had long come undone from my long braid out of my face. I stood there as he stopped his camel next to me. I couldn't run anyway. There was no way I would be able to survive the desert on my own, and besides, I couldn't leave Alex.

He offered a gloved hand to me, and when I didn't take it, he reached down and pulled me up into his saddle. I gave a squeak of protest as he did so, but he simply silenced me and rode on.

From a surprising distance, I heard my former ornery camel bellow in triumph just before he disappeared over a sand dune. I crossed my arms and gave a quiet growl of "stupid camel."

We reached the Blue Nile within the next few hours, and I dismounted ungracefully, but much happier to be off the camel, and further away from Imhotep. We were in a small sort of canyon, and the river made a sort of beach where it curved before the rock face around us did. It was beautiful, and a wonderful reprieve from the miles of endless sand that I had been seeing for the past few days. I took off my boots and socks, letting the cool water splash over my feet, wetting the hem of my skirt. After so long in the desert, it was a little slice of heaven for my rapidly baking skin. Just then, a cool breeze ran through the canyon, completing my vision of bliss as I briefly held my hair up off my neck- it was in a braid, but it was still heavy.

Suddenly I felt a pair of smaller hands, accompanied by a boyish giggle, on my back, pushing me forward.

"Alex!" I howled as I fell into the water, fortunately on my right side, and not the left where the Bible I had taken from the ship was, along with my drawing paper. I took said items out of my pocket, throwing them safely on shore.

"Uh oh." Alex knew what this meant, and, wisely, took off running.

"No you don't!" I laughed, running after him, grabbing him, and with a yell of triumph, throwing him into the water. Unfortunately, he still had hold of my blouse, and pulled me down with him, soaking me further.

"Woo!" He yelled gleefully, and I splashed him from where I sat on the sandy bottom of the oasis. He splashed me back, and soon an all out war had begun. We forgot where we were, we forgot that we had been kidnapped, we even forgot who had kidnapped us; we were just two kids enjoying a reprieve from the heat.

At least, until, while splashing and running away from each other at the same time, we ran into someone, and the action knocked me over, causing Alex to trip and fall on top of me. We were about to apologize, laughter still in our voices, until who it was exactly made us freeze.

Imhotep looked down at us with a mixed expression. It looked as though he had been angry, but that anger had given way to amusement. Wordlessly, we both stood, walking out of the water clumsily, the water deep enough to make walking difficult.

I attempted to smooth Alex's hair, before giving up and wringing out my own braid, and then my dress, which was a losing battle on my part. But the sun did quite a bit to help, though it was still very slow to dry. I walked back to where I had laid the Bible and my drawings- along with a pencil- and picked them up, sitting against the wall of the canyon, the rock rather warm, but the heat would be necessary to dry my clothing, and began to draw.

Slowly, but steadily, the drawing came to form. As my pencil moved over the paper, it left behind the form of a horse, then a rider as well. More detail revealed the rider to be a woman, with long dark hair, riding bareback, the horse with its head held proudly, mane blowing in the wind, as if on a hill. I decided the woman was to be facing the viewer, and facial featured, along with further detail, revealed the horse to be a bay, and the woman to be pretty, in a long skirt that bunched up where it touched the horses back and left a bit of her legs showing, not more than mid calf, and barefoot. I shaded, darkened, highlighted, never really knowing what I was drawing. As I finished, I held the drawing away from me a bit to see it properly. The horse was Cecil, that was now easy to see, even without knowing who I was drawing, I had made the markings the same. And the woman… was my mother. I stared and stared at the picture, at her features, and found that my mind wandered to the dream I had had a while ago, when I had been knocked out on the train. Yes, it was definitely my mother. Even the clothing was the same, not to mention the hair in a braid, the ribbon, the style of dress. I stared at her face, it was almost hard to believe that I had drawn this. She stared out at me, a 'catch me if you can' expression on her face. Gently, I refolded the paper I had drawn on, placing it carefully in my now-dry pocket, along with the Bible and pencil. How had I drawn my mother? It was so strange! Then again, everything had been strange since this whole venture had started, and had taken an out and out weird turn when Amunet had come to share my body. Did this have something to do with her? I could feel her in my mind, a whole different being from me, but still in my mind. It felt as though she was sleeping. I considered trying to wake her up to ask her if this had somehow been her doing, but then thought better of it.

"Leaving bread crumbs, huh?" I was startled out of my musings as I heard Loch-Na yell. I looked up with a start, and immediately stood up. Loch-Na had Alex by the arms and was shaking him, obviously very angry.

"Put my brother down!" I yelled, running toward him.

"Loch-Na." Everyone stopped and looked at Imhotep, who had just spoken. "Put the boy down."

As if in a daze, Loch-Na obeyed, lowering Alex to the ground and letting go of him. I immediately put my hands on his shoulders, moving him a few steps away from the big man.

"Are you alright?" I asked, trying not to fuss. "He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"Yeah, Sarah, I'm fine." He nodded.

Suddenly some sort of subconscious force drew our attention once again to Imhotep.

The Creature smirked. "I hope your parents enjoyed their journey."

"Wha-" I started to ask, then stopped and listened. Yes, I could hear voices echoing in the canyon. Obviously Imhotep would be able to pick out that it was Rick and Evelyn.

Imhotep turned his attention back to the water, and Alex and I watched in horror as he manipulated it into a massive wave, impossibly high, and roaring as only water can- and pushed it down the canyon.

"No…" Images began running through my head, memories were clicking like puzzle pieces. I had been out of it at the time, but I had still seen it. The wall of sand. He was manipulating the water like he had manipulated the sand. "No, no, no!" I turned away from the sight, fighting to keep the images, and old memories from returning.

The wall of sand, and his face appearing from it. The face formed from the blood of my family. Uncle Andrew. Uncle Mark. Dad. I could see their faces in my mind. The excitement in the beginning. The excitement that had turned to fear as Uncle Andrew lost his eyes and tongue, then eventually his life, to the monster. Because that's what it was, a monster. He was not a man. Faces, faces, endless faces. Dad alive, then dead. Uncle Mark alive, then dead. Uncle Andrew, alive, then eyeless, then dead. Over and over again, they flashed through my mind in an unstoppable torrent. I remembered my own scream as I had felt him slip away. I had been hiding behind my dad even as it killed him. My scream as I watched Uncle Mark die, his scream as he was dying. There was a new scream. Who's scream? Who was screaming? Was I screaming? My mother's face. Her tired eyes as she lay in bed, slowly dying. How her hand shook as she wrote in her notes, the scrawl of hieroglyphs on the inner cover. Death is only the beginning. She had written that. It was the on the lid of the casket. Its casket, not her casket. The Creature had carved it too. My mother's face, alive, sick, and dead, joined the flash of faces and memories. Cogs started moving in my mind, making connections. He had killed her. I didn't know how but he had killed her! But that was irrational, she died of consumption. But it was connected somehow, I knew it! It was all the work of the Creature!

I stopped when I felt a hand on my shoulder. Somehow I had wandered away from the group. When had I done that? What was going on? Why was I here? Where was Alex? I was spun around, and its face, the face of the Creature, filled my vision. I screamed, I screamed, turning my face away from him.

_Sarah! Sarah! _I heard her voice in my head, but it only served to make it worse. I lashed out, punching and kicking- wishing I had my pocket knife, or something similar. He- it- he put both of his hands on the side of my head, holding it still, forcing me to look in his eyes.

And I blacked out.

* * *

**A/N: Yes, Sarah kind of goes crazy in this chapter. If the paragraph seems really random and disjointed, it's supposed to be. I don't know why I put that in, I guess I just decided it was time for a breakdown. Truthfully, I thought the relation with Imhotep had been getting a little out of character, so now it's a bit more like it should be. And the blacking out is just a bit of Imhotep magic that I made up. I mean, he can do just about everything else, why wouldn't he be able to render someone unconcious?**

**Oh, as a little side note: I've been working on a Harry Potter/The Mummy crossover. That's where all the plot bunnies ran off to. That, and Yu-gi-oh. But the cross over wont be posted until it's completely finished, so that we don't have to deal with my cases of writer's block. I'm not trying to make a shameless plug for another fic, I just felt the need to give some sort of explanation of why I've been away from this fic for so long. **

**And I can't believe I haven't said this until now, but thank you SO MUCH for your lovely reviews! They help, they really do.**


	9. Whispers of a Nameless Fear

Author's note I switched to third person in this chapter, because it's Amunet, and I thought it would make it more of a difference, since I normally write this in first person. So, if you're noticing something a little off… it's supposed to be that way. Pathetically short chapter. There's no excuse why this is so late. I'm sorry- I can't seem to really focus on this story lately. I'll do my best until I finish.

Chapter 9

Whispers of a Nameless Fear

Amunet once more shook her long black hair out of her face, Sarah had put it into a braid, but through the days events, it was coming loose. Amunet could easily re-braid it, of course, but the jungle at night was not exactly the place to do that. Amunet was rather glad to be up at the front of the line, not only to talk with Imhotep or her sister, but to be away from the boy. Sarah's adopted brother, Alex. Sarah had told him about her dreams, and the discovery of Amunet herself, so it wasn't a total shock to the younger boy, who had been upset not only by the death of his parents, but by Sarah's total collapse. Amunet knew that Sarah was in a weak mental state, currently, and so had taken over the body- the spitfire Texan too weak to protest. Ever since she had revealed herself to Alex, the boy hadn't spoken a word to her, just glared at her. That was why Amunet refused to look back, she didn't want to see the look of hatred, a look that was both disturbing in such a young boy, and that Amunet herself was unaccustomed to.

She had been beloved in Egypt. The Pharaoh's sorceress, able to see the outcomes of battles when the war hadn't even started yet, able to predict droughts and other such things, a helper of the people. But then again, she didn't know if there were some that did hate her, and it bothered her. What if everything had all been an act? What if she hadn't been loved at all, but hated? Thought of as a monster or demon, yet the people had disguised it to avoid the wrath of Pharaoh? It frustrated her, how could a little boy of eight throw her off this much with one look? She now doubted how much the people had loved her, exactly, because this young boy seemed to hate her so; and she needed to remember that she had been loved, she didn't know why, exactly, but it was some deeply sewn need inside of her. She tried to brush it off; this boy hated her because she was a different consciousness in the body of his beloved sister. She had seen in Sarah's mind how close they were. Yes, that was it. There was no need to doubt everyone else's love for her simply because this was the one person she didn't find it in. No reason at all.

Still, she did not look back. Instead she looked to Imhotep. Things would be wonderful under his rule, she knew. He had had many idea's to ease the burden of the people back all those years ago- the idea of him ruling should make the people happy. They would benefit.

"_Amunet. Do you see anything?_" Imhotep asked casually. Everyone knew there was something dangerous in this oasis, it would have been foolish to leave such a place unguarded. But the problem was that almost no one knew what it was- the people who did were long dead, even before Amunet had been born. So far they had gone the rest of the day, and well into the night without seeing anything, and it was making the men uneasy and restless.

Amunet closed her eyes and gently reached out a hand and grasped a leaf tenderly. Suddenly her mind was filled with the screams of the men, the cries of the dying. She saw the men running in all directions, then falling- pained shrieks followed by the triumphant cry of something inhuman. She frowned searching the vision for what it was, and found it- putting her hand on Imhotep, feeding the vision to him briefly before breaking contact with both Imhotep and the leaf she had been holding.

"_Chaos._" She said simply as she opened her eyes. "_Chaos and blood._"

She saw a brief flash of horror on her sister's face, before Ancksunamun quickly covered it with indifference. Just then a wind whipped through the oasis, the leaves moving threateningly.

"_Do not fear, they cannot harm me._" Imhotep said, a small smirk on his face as he wrapped an arm around Anck when she leaned into him for protection.

Amunet watched the two lovers, silently envying their happy ending, and wishing that her own fate had been just as wonderful. But no, her lover- if he could have ever been called that, what with their precarious positions in the past- was now a dead corpse drifting somewhere under the sands where the old walls of Haumnaptra once stood. Perhaps once Imhotep took power, he would grant her a favor. A rather large favor, but had she not helped him many times in the past? And she would in the future, that would be certain.

But what of Sarah? Amunet was no fool- she knew the fiery girl would protest if that did sort of wish came to pass. All the times Sarah had been awake when Amunet had been able to talk to Imhotep, she had felt the girl's rage towards the man. And Sarah had been afraid of Aaftab as well- but then again, at the time he was a reanimated corpse and she had been ten years old. Perhaps… but no, she would not approve, Amunet knew this already, and there was no changing it. Something would need to be done about her, but Amunet was loathe to admit it- especially since she had decided to spare her when Imhotep had brought Amunet herself back.

And then, as if out of nowhere, the oasis jungle erupted into noise. Pained cries of men, terrified screaming of others, the sound of many beings disturbing the foliage… and the triumphant cries of some sort of inhuman tribe. Amunet knew for certain that she would not be harmed- much like Imhotep knew he could not be touched- but that didn't stop a certain fear from entering her heart. She followed behind Imhotep as they walked, quickly but calmly, through the nightmarish jungle. Amunet herself was out of touch with most of it- a distant third party, much like Imhotep was, and Anuck-su-Namun was trying to be. She saw all, and yet focused on nothing. Heard all, and listened to nothing. She was truly immune to it, much like she had forced herself to be immune to the people back in her old time- the one's who had bad fortunes, and, well, even the one's who had good fortunes. A third party. Distant, cold, immune.

It was her weakness. As soon as she had let herself truly relax, following blankly behind Imhotep, she felt herself abruptly shoved to the back of her own mind.

_Gotcha. _Sarah laughed, and Amunet felt her world fade once again.


	10. Phoenix Rising

Chapter 10

Phoenix Rising

I ran through the forest, both scared and exhilarated; scared because I had no idea where I was going, I was just trying to get away from those _things_, I didn't even know what they were. But I had done it, I'd finally beaten that woman for control. I'd never let her have it again, if I could help it. I knew full well she could have let me die at Karnak- but I didn't care. This was my body, and I wasn't going to just share with anyone- especially not someone who was close to the Creature. I'd get rid of her as soon as I figured out how. Perhaps she'd go away at the pyramid. I didn't know, and at the moment I didn't much care. All that mattered was running. If I ran fast enough, I'd survive the jungle, and the night.

At some point, I didn't know how late it was, or how early, I couldn't see the sun for the trees, I came to a river. No way to cross- the side of the cliff, if it could be called that, was far too long. I knew just by looking that I wouldn't survive a jump, or that I'd never reach the other side if I tried to jump across. Perhaps there was a bridge somewhere. I ran at a lighter pace, trying to save some stamina, incase those pygmie things, mummies or whatever, caught up with me.

Nothing ever did. It couldn't have been a few minutes after starting my journey along the riverbank, but I found something I thought might help… a vine. It was hanging down, a little back into the forest, from a tree that looked good and sturdy. I tugged, hard, on the vine. It didn't fall, and there weren't any animals that I could see. I walked backward, even with the tree trunk, ran forward a bit, and swung. Maybe, just maybe, this would be far enough for me to make it.

It wasn't. The vine was long, and it stretched a long way across the river, but there was no possible way I'd make it. I muttered a word I'd heard from both Rick and my father, when they thought I couldn't hear them, that I knew I shouldn't repeat. I was so wrapped up in my disappointment in having one plan fail, that I didn't pay attention at how fast I was swinging backwards. The vine was longer than the distance from the tree to the ground, and I had slid out once I swung, once I was over the river, and now the same length that I thought would have helped me, was the reason that I slammed roughly against the side of the riverbank.

White hot pain exploded from my right arm, which had taken most of the impact. I let out a startled scream, my arm and the right side of my face getting still more nicks and scratches as I scrambled, still clinging to the vine. Well… now it was easy to see that this plan had not been well thought. I turned so that my feet rested on the side of the riverbank. The rocks were rough, but offered no purchase. I'd have to rely on my arms to climb. I reached up with my right.

And screamed again. There was no possible way I could climb on this- the arm might be broken, or fractured. Tears of fear and frustration fell down my cheeks. Unless someone found me, I really wasn't going to get out of this alive, was I?

"RICK!" I didn't know if he was anywhere near where I was, but I screamed his name anyway. "RICK!"

Several more times, the echo of one not dying away before I screamed again… until my voice started to crack. I had no water, and hadn't drunk any for quite some time. This was not good, not good at all. No water, hanging over a river, with some sort of creature attacking everything in the forest that moved. And Imhotep. Nothing was worse than Imhotep. Still, I had to keep trying. "RI-!"

"Sarah!" Not Rick, but a familiar, and welcome, voice.

"Ardeth!" I didn't think I'd ever been so happy to see the man. Well… maybe when I was younger and he saved me from the mummified priest… but there was no time to dwell on that at the moment. "My arm's broken or something- I can't climb!"

"Here, I'll pull you." He seemed to radiate some sort of calm that was reassuring. Seconds later, the vine started moving as Ardeth pulled me toward stable ground.

"Thank you." I breathed out. It was completely inadequate, of course, but I couldn't think of anything else to say.

"I have nothing to bandage it with, and no time to stop." Ardeth was short and to the point.

"Do you know where Rick and Evelyn are?"

"Not too far that way." He pointed me in the direction I'd been running. "Will you be alright?"

"If I hurry." I nodded, and ran off, cradling my arm to my chest.

It was now easy to see that it wouldn't be dark for much longer. The night felt less oppressive, and I could see a bit of pink creeping over the horizon. Wait… morning… it was the seventh day! Immediately I wondered where Alex was. Had Rick found him already? Surely he had, or Ardeth wouldn't have been leaving. I ran faster in the direction he'd pointed me.

"Sarah!" I could have cried again, I was so relieved to hear, and see, Evelyn, who was with Rick, Alex, and Jonathan, of course. "Hurry!"

I did, running across a fallen log- now THIS would have been handy- over the river behind Alex.

Once we were all across… and the log blown up- effectively either buying us time, or leaving us as the only people able to get to the pyramid, it was time to take a breather.

"Come on Mom, Dad, we have to get to the pyramid! I have to get the bracelet off NOW!" Alex was visibly worried, and I knew why. I stood, ready to get going again.

"Oh, leave it on, Alex, it looks good on you!" Jonathan joked. Everyone laughed, save for me and Alex.

"No, you guys, you don't understand! He told me the bracelet will kill me if I don't get into the pyramid before the sun hits it! Today!"

Everyone seemed to automatically turn to the horizon- which was becoming far too light for comfort. Rick took off running, grabbing Alex's tiny wrist in one hand. Evelyn, Jonathan, and I weren't far behind.

Jonathan and I were the first to fall behind- guesturing to Evelyn to keep going. I didn't know about him, but I was worn out, my arm was hurting like none other, and I couldn't seem to get breath in my lungs.

"Jonathan… my arm… it's…" I said through panting breaths.

"What?" Jonathan turned to me, the two of us trying to jog, at least, to keep up.

"My arm is broken."

Jonathan looked like he wanted to curse, but didn't dare. "We'll have to take you to a doctor when we get out of this mess- there's no time to look at it now."

I nodded, expecting it. A few minutes later, we caught up with Evelyn, who was also worn out.

"Rick will get Alex to the pyramid in time." I managed. "I know he will."

Evelyn nodded, but it was easy to see she was less sure.

Nothing else happened… but we all began to fret a little when we could see the sun lighting up the sky- morning came far too quickly. We reached the pyramid a few minutes later.

"They made it." Evelyn sounded like she could cry with relief. "Thank God."

I sighed in relief, offering up a silent prayer of thanks, trying to catch my breath.

They came out of nowhere. There was no way for any mortal man to get across to the pyramid- but Imhotep was no mortal man. I could only stare in shock as they approached us- Jonathan and I flew backwards when Imhotep pushed us both out of the way like discarded dolls, as Anuck-su-namun's knife slammed into Evelyn's gut.

Rick was on his feet in a second. "Evie! No!"

"Mom!"

Jonathan and I could only stand back, Jonathan holding Alex, while Rick fretted over Evie. I could feel tears leaking down my face, part of my brain going into overdrive while the other part refused to process it.

"Mom!"

Jonathan and I could only stand back, Jonathan holding Alex, while Rick fretted over Evie. I could feel tears leaking down my face, part of my brain going into overdrive while the other part refused to process it. Grief is a strange thing- sometimes you cry for days over the death of someone you barely knew- and other times you find you don't have tears the morning after your own mother passed away. It's as different in humans as one human is different from the other- some people handle it better as they get older, and some seem to always stay the same. Evelyn had become my mother, but I found that, after some time, the tears just stopped coming, and the one's that were still there dried on my face. It was certainly a time to mourn, and I did, but I couldn't cry. Grief and mourning did not always mean crying.

Hours went by, and we stayed like this, the sun's changing position in the sky the only sign of time passing. None of us got hungry, and though my throat was parched, I didn't think I could drink water even if it was offered to me. Eventually, Rick stood up, and began to walk towards the pyramid. He asked Jonathan to keep Alex with him, and I stood up and followed.

For a moment, he looked like he was going to say no- tell me to go back and wait with Jonathan and Alex, but I think he remembered. My grief had hardened into a desire to take revenge- I hadn't had a proper one for the death of my own father and "uncles" but I would have it now while we both took revenge for Evelyn's murder.

The pyramid was dark, it was easy to find a torch, but even then, the darkness seemed to hover over us like a ghost. I found a torch easily, as well as oil, and Rick always had a lighter in his pocket. Neither one of us spoke- we didn't need to. No questions entered our minds for it seemed like they would be answered by the other before we could even think them. I led- I could read the hieroglyphs, but it seemed almost like I didn't need to- I found myself turning down passages before I had even glanced at where we should be going.

"_You want to be rid of me._" I could hear her voice in my mind.

'More than you can possibly imagine.' I replied.

"_Tell O'Connell to take the right passage. It will lead him straight to the Scorpion King."_

'Why should I trust you? You've done nothing to earn it.'

"_That I know. But I am tired already. I was not meant to be reborn, and I don't want to keep existing like this, stuck in a mind not my own. I want to die again."_

'How do I know you won't harm Rick?'

"_I have no reason to. And you know, as well as I, that I don't act without a reason."_

I didn't want to trust her. She left me with no choice. She wouldn't go away, wouldn't die, unless I did whatever she asked. And I had the distinct feeling that she wasn't going to try and kill me. "Rick." I stopped at the passage she told me. "There's something I need to do." I handed him the torch. "Take this, and follow the right passage. It will dead end into the Scorpion King's chamber."

"What about you?" Rick asked.

"I'll follow you once I'm done. " I took another torch off the wall, and he lit it with his.

We parted without a word- this was irregular for both of us, and yet everything had become irregular so that it seemed almost normal.

I listened to the woman as she gave me instructions. I memorized my way, so that I would know where to go when I came back.

"_This room, right here."_

There was no door, and it looked like some sort of strange… well, actually, it looked like a ritual room.

"_Sarah. You must trust me."_

"You give me no choice." This time I spoke out loud.

"_You have to let me take over."_

"No." That I couldn't trust her on.

"_Do you want me to continue living in your mind? Listening to your thoughts? Staring at your dreams? Making sure that you know you're never alone?"_

I hated her for it. I hated her. I hated her. "Fine." But this couldn't be done any other way.

I stopped thinking completely, letting my mind go blank. In that instant, she took over.

She offered no explination, but I watched her every move. She found a jar, taking powder from it, and blew it on a man carved into stone. I wasn't disturbed by the mummy that broke away from the stone- more disturbed that Imhotep had done this same act. She spoke to it, but that I didn't listen to what she was saying. Something told me I didn't want to know.

After a moment, he nodded.

"Who is this?" I asked her.

"_My mentor." _She replied, sounding pained. _"If only I didn't have to bring him back like this."_

I stayed silent. I watched as she sat down on the large, stone table that was in the center of the room, then laid across it. I saw everything like I was the one doing it, and yet I felt nothing.

She watched her mentor after that, staring as he got out a book, and laid it across her, and then prepared his hands. His hands, I could feel- dry, well preserved, and… warm. It was strange to feel warm hands from someone I knew was dead. He began to chant, and I could feel myself being brought to the forefront. My body began to feel like my own again… and that presence in the back of my mind, no matter if Amunet was asleep or talking to me, it was always there, her presence… that began to fade. Fade, until I felt it empty… felt her die again. He took his hands away, took the book off my chest, and let me stand. I watched him as he put the book away, and went and stood at his place in the wall. He began to chant again… and then was stiff as he had been, dead once more.

I lost no time. I took the torch again, running through the hallways and passages, until I found where I had left Rick. And now my revenge could finally begin. The woman was gone- I was myself.

I walked through the passage Rick had, I could still see his boot prints. My arm was throbbing- it had always been, but now it became too painful to ignore. But I had to keep going. Now I could see footsteps of someone else- gone over to the massive statue of a scorpion, and then into the chamber, while Rick's continued on in without turning left or right.

And there were countless scarabs- a river of them. Some sort of writhing, black river with little screeching voices. I fought the urge to gag at so many bugs… my arm hurt so badly! I stopped now, and couldn't help but lean it against the wall, in an attempt to stabilize it and give it something to lean against. It hadn't hurt when I was on the stone table, after all.

Bad move. I'd been leaning against the wall for a few minutes, when still more pain… and the sensation of something crawling… filled it. I looked down at it, and screamed.

There was a scarab in my arm! It crawled at a decent speed, and I looked around for something… I knew already I'd have to cut it out. But I couldn't find anything sharp! Wait… the scorpion. Through my panic, I saw the sharp ends on the scorpion's claws. I ran, pressing down around the scarab in an attempt to hold him still.

I screamed again as I felt the statue peirce my skin. The stone was sharp, it had been carved to a distinct point. But the squealing stopped. I whimpered in pain as I pulled away, and could see my own skin… and the scarab… impaled on the carved claw.

I cradled my arm to my chest. I had to get to Rick. I had to get to someone… this had to be wrapped. It was bleeding heavily… though it didn't seem like I had pierced anything vital. I was crying- that I knew.

"Rick!" Another voice rang out the same time mine did. "Jonathan!" I turned to face him. He had come out, with Alex, on a different wall, but it was adjacent to mine. I could get over there… I would just need to be creative.

"It's a spear!" I could hear Rick shouting to Jonathan. I jumped onto another stone… from the looks of things, I did NOT want to fall in between them… and then another… and another.

And then I saw Evelyn. Had I not been trying to avoid everything that was on around me, my jaw would have dropped. But apparently I hadn't been concentrating hard enough…

"Amunet." Imhotep's voice was alarming to hear. But I had one advantage over him. He didn't know she was gone. I turned to him- he looked concerned for maybe half a second over my arm, before he began to ask me to restore some part of his powers. I made some vague movement with my arms, and I could see the expectant look on his face…

And that was when I kicked him. It wasn't very hard… but I managed a kick to his ribcage. The shock on his face, and the following horror of realization, was as much revenge as I was likely to get, at least dished out by me, in my condition… and I took it with satisfaction. And then did the smart thing and ran for it.

"Sarah! Your arm!" Jonathan and Alex looked up for a moment… before the spear popped out.

Several things happened at once- Imhotep recognized the golden object, and Evelyn began to yell at Jonathan to throw it. I hadn't realized what sort of arm Jonathan had on him, but it was flying quite nicely… until Imhotep caught it, and threw it again after taking the Scorpion King's army for himself. It was a confusing blur… at least to me it was… I was losing blood still…. The next thing I knew, Rick had caught it, and it was all over… we'd won. Again I took utter delight in Imhotep's anguished face.

And it felt like the world was about to explode. The ground began to shake… the chamber was collapsing… but there was no sign of Rick anywhere… or Imhotep, for that matter. But now that the Scorpion King was gone, Imhotep seemed the least of our worries. And then we saw their hands.

"Sarah." Jonathan was careful, and gave my arm a loose wrap. We both had our eyes on Rick the entire time, but I just knew he was going to make it. He had to. It wouldn't be right if he didn't. "I hope it's not too loose."

"It feels a little better." It was a far cry from the actual treatment I needed, but it was better than nothing.

"Evelyn!"

"Mom!"

And we were now focused back to watching Rick and Evelyn, all of us sharing the same silent prayer.

And it was answered. Rick was able to, with Evelyn's help, pull himself out of the (literal) hell hole. I couldn't help but look at Imhotep's face. He seemed to be almost in awe that two people would try so hard to save the other.

"Anuck-su-namun!" He knew he couldn't do it by himself. "Help me!"

No response.

"Help me!"

"No!" And she was off. I think we all gaped after just a touch.

I couldn't help but feel just a tad bit sorry for Imhotep… but that didn't last long.

The pyramid was collapsing, and we were off. Jonathan helped me steady myself as we ran together, enough of us able to read hieroglyphs that no one was the real leader. In a few minutes we were outside… climbing up the side of the pyramid.

It wasn't tall enough. I could see it even from down at the bottom of it, it wasn't tall enough. But still, we kept climbing.

"Come on, Sarah!" Jonathan helped me, and I tried to move fast because he was so determined to stay behind me and help… but it was slow going. And yet, all too soon, we were at the top. I clung to Jonathan, if this was the end, I wanted to be clinging to someone when I died. I began to offer up not-so-silent prayers. But it was the end…

"Oi!" All of us snapped our heads up to the noise at once. Who on earth was that? But I wasn't going to think twice about getting on. Whoever he was, he was a Godsend.

"Careful of her arm." Jonathan and Rick helped me get up. I scrambled out of the way to make room for Rick… wait, where was Jonathan?

I was answered as soon as I heard Rick yelling "It's not worth your life, you idiot!"

"Good grief, Jonathan!" I couldn't help but stare at it once he was on board. But he didn't have enough time to really say much before we were caught up in a cloud of sand. The pilot sailed out of it easily enough… and we were home free. Seconds later, he began squabbling with Jonathan.

Alex came over to me. "Is that lady still….?"

I shook my head, smiling. He grinned, wrapping his arms around me, and I hugged him back with my good arm. "I'm just me again."

"Good." Alex nodded.

I smiled again… before groaning and closing my eyes. I was so dizzy…

"Sarah!" Now that he was able to really see what was going on, Rick was concerned. "Izzy, we've got to get her to a doctor, or a hospital… something!"

"I know one in…" And that was the last I heard. I blacked out completely before I could hear the rest.

**A/N: So, this is the last chapter of Scarab Key. I'm sorry to give it such a quick ending, but I know that y'all are tired of waiting and waiting. I really had forgotten where I was going with this- and only recently figured it out, and I'm sure that wasn't the ending I had originally planned. So I hope you enjoyed the last chapter- an epilogue will be up later today.**


	11. Epilogue

Epilogue

I didn't wake up until after I'd been in the hospital awhile. It was actually Jonathan who ended up saving me- we had the same blood type, and I needed it badly. They didn't have to tell me that, anyone could have seen it from the amount of blood I left back at the pyramid. The cut on my arm had gotten infected, I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was. The doctors tried what they could, but they just didn't have the medicine, or the equipment, to deal with it. I guess with all the sand, and with who knows what was on the scarab or on the statue… as well as what might have been on my skin from the jungle… it was bad. According to Alex, parts of my arm were turning different colors by the time they got me there.

They were able to put me out when I lost the arm. I groaned about it, I had seen people go through similar things without much help at all, but I was grateful that they were able to- I wouldn't have wanted to have been awake for that. I bore no grudge to the doctors, or the hospital itself, even though if we had had time to go to a hospital in the city then I might still have use of my arm. No, it was just the misfortune of myself… and Imhotep's fault, if I had to pin the blame on someone… to have it happen out in the middle of the desert.

I still went to college. I started a little later, the doctors back in London recommended that, but I still went. I never got very good with letters or numbers on my left hand, and the college was nice enough to provide me with a typewriter in every class. I still went through with my plan of studying archeology. The college was close enough that I ended up staying at home- Jonathan drove me in his car every day, and I took the bus home. That was the better solution- I wouldn't have wanted to stay in a room on campus, roommate or none. As it was, it took me a little longer to graduate than I would have liked- they didn't want me taking too many hours a week- but I managed. I still wanted to follow in Evelyn's footsteps and work in the British Museum. It was a dream I had since I'd first seen the place, and it hadn't changed.

But I did spend several years back in Texas after I graduated. Friend's of my father, and of my uncles, had kept the ranch up. This, I knew, was good for me. I felt better the first day there. To be riding around in the open, with the biggest blue sky you'll ever see looking down on you, there's no other feeling like it in the whole world. I did meet a boy while I was back home, but I never married, him or anyone. We did stay friends, and wrote letters for awhile, but then he met another girl and didn't have time to send letters quite so much. I expected it, and had to laugh. After a few years, I went back to London, only this time, they let me take my horse with me. It was a nice thing for them to do… pity I had to lose an arm for them to do it.

I took over Evelyn's job, running the British Museum, after the war, when she wanted to retire. And I expect I'll be there until I get too old and they feel the need to order me away. I'm blessed with my lot, and would have it no other way.

**A/N: So... this is the very end of Scarab Key, and as you might have guessed, the end of the "Scarab" fanfics. I had thought about writing a third, set after Tomb of the Dragon Emporer, but I wasn't very happy with the result, and so I deleted it. It wouldn't have worked very well with this ending, anyway. I know I beat Sarah up quite a bit in chapter ten, and this epilogue, but the way I was writing it, it seemed right. And if anyone says that this sounds like a True Grit ending... I know. I was trying to keep it from being like that, but in the end, I just felt that the way I had written Sarah might still make her that sort of person in the end. This was actually my less violent option- I had thought about her having a fight with Amunet, going insane, and dying at some point. Or being killed by Amunet, and then Amunet being killed when the pyramid collapsed.**

**And for anyone wondering why this is up so quickly: I had thought about waiting until I had some reviews for chapter 10... then I realized that only 40 reviews total over the course of three years... that wasn't likely to happen. So here it is- I promised it would be up later today, and it is. Hope you enjoyed both Scarab Locket and Scarab Key. I've gotten a few people asking me if I might re-write Scarab Locket, or the earlier parts of this fic, but I won't. I've found that whenever I do that, I tend to completely change things. And I really don't want to re-write both stories.**

**So, this is the final sign-off. Tell me what you thought! (Please!)**


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